An Open Letter to the Chinese Prosecutors Association: The Case of Huang Lijun Should Be Given Attention and Judicial Justice Should Be Upheld

To the Chinese Prosecutors Association and President Ying Yong: I am Wen Donghai, the legal counsel for Huang Lijun, the former Party Secretary and Procurator of Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate, and his wife, Guo Hong. On behalf of Guo Hong, I am submitting this letter to your association. As a legal professional, I will present the facts of a wrongly convicted prosecutor's case and express my concerns about the violation of judicial justice. The Chinese Prosecutors Association is the spiritual home of prosecutors nationwide. Today, I am reporting a fact that should not have happened but did occur to a prosecutor. I hope this letter will prompt every prosecutor who reads it to consider a question: If he can be treated like this, who can guarantee that the next person will not be treated the same way? President Ying Yong, you made an important instruction on the work of Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate in

1. After seeing the instruction, Huang Lijun immediately organized all staff to study it, and he told his colleagues, 'The recognition from the Supreme People's Procuratorate is the greatest encouragement for us, the prosecutors of Pingjiang.' He was excited for several days and considered your instruction the most valuable recognition in his procuratorial career. However, he could not have imagined that less than half a year after the instruction was issued, he would be imprisoned in the Yueyang City Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee's detention center, and later sentenced to nine years in prison. I am writing to your association today because Huang Lijun's case involves serious injustices and profound lessons, and I urgently hope that the Chinese Prosecutors Association, as the spiritual home of prosecutors nationwide, will pay attention to it. Huang Lijun, born in March 1964, has served as a member of the Party group, deputy procurator, and deputy secretary of the Party group of the Yueyang Lou District People's Procuratorate of Yueyang City since
2. In August 2016, he was appointed as the Party Secretary and Procurator of Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate, a third-level senior procurator. On September 3, 2021, Huang Lijun was put under investigation by the Yueyang City Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee for suspected crimes of bending the law for personal gain and accepting bribes. On January 9, 2024, the Ningxiang City People's Court of Hunan Province sentenced Huang Lijun to eight years and six months in prison for bending the law for personal gain and one year in prison for accepting bribes, with a combined sentence of nine years in prison. On March 27, 2024, the Changsha City Intermediate People's Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict without a trial. Huang Lijun is currently being held in the Pingtang Prison of Hunan Province. As his legal counsel, I have reviewed all the facts of the case. I believe that Huang Lijun does not constitute the crime of bending the law for personal gain, and the facts recognized by the original trial are seriously inconsistent with the objective evidence in the case files. Huang Lijun was deliberately framed and wrongly prosecuted. Huang Lijun has worked as a prosecutor for 38 years, serving in the front line of grassroots procuratorates for a long time. He has successively held leadership positions in the Yueyang Lou District People's Procuratorate and the Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate, always performing his duties diligently and practically, and making positive contributions to the development of the procuratorial cause. From 1995 to 2016, Huang Lijun was in charge of anti-corruption and public prosecution work. During this period, he insisted on working at the front line, tackling tough cases, and severely cracking down on corruption. He successfully handled the major case of Wu Wenwei's bribery, which was widely publicized by the media as a model for grassroots procuratorates to handle cases accurately and practically. From 2016 to 2021, Huang Lijun served as the Procurator of Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate. During his tenure, he led all staff to strive for excellence, pushing forward various procuratorial work with high quality. He led the creation of a national civilized unit, and the Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate was awarded the title of 'National Civilized Unit' for the sixth time. He led the special campaign against underworld forces, establishing a mechanism for regular consultation, research, and promotion, strictly regulating judicial case handling, and upholding the bottom line of the rule of law. He attached great importance to the judicial protection of minors, leading the establishment of the city's first judicial protection center for minors, introducing social public resources, and regularly carrying out law popularization activities in schools. He focused on public interest litigation, actively promoting the effectiveness of procuratorial public interest litigation, and innovatively using new methods such as drone evidence collection. He successfully activated idle land, rectified hidden dangers in drinking water source protection areas, and recovered economic losses of 2.136 billion yuan for the state. He insisted on safeguarding the development of the private economy, focusing on the difficulties and worries of enterprises, and leading multiple departments to rectify infringements on the rights of enterprises. During the epidemic prevention and control period, he took the lead, established a temporary party branch, and led all staff to guard the front line of epidemic prevention and control, serving the people with dedication. Under his leadership, the overall work level of the Pingjiang County People's Procuratorate was significantly improved, and the unit was awarded multiple honors, including the title of 'Advanced Grassroots Procuratorate' at the national, provincial, and municipal levels. However, before the honorary certificates were taken down from the wall, the procurator who led the unit to achieve these honors was already standing in the defendant's seat, wearing a prisoner's uniform. Guo Hong, Huang Lijun's wife, is a retired cadre from the Yueyang Lou District People's Procuratorate of Yueyang City. She has worked in the procuratorial system for many years and dedicated her youth and strength to the procuratorial cause. After Huang Lijun was wrongly prosecuted, Guo Hong, despite her advanced age, persisted in appealing and collecting evidence, making multiple accusations to the procuratorial and disciplinary authorities in her own name, making unremitting efforts to uphold judicial justice and restore the truth of the case. Based on a large number of case facts, Huang Lijun's case has the following serious problems: (1) Key exculpatory evidence was concealed, and illegal evidence was accepted. (2) There were serious problems with illegal evidence collection. (3) Multiple witnesses were coerced into making false testimony. (4) There were serious procedural violations. Based on the review of all the case facts, I put forward the following legal opinions: First, Huang Lijun does not constitute the crime of bending the law for personal gain. Second, the main evidence used to convict and sentence Huang Lijun was illegally obtained and should be excluded. Third, the original trial procedure was seriously illegal. Fourth, this case meets the conditions for retrial as stipulated in Article 253, Items (1), (2), (3), and (4) of the Criminal Procedure Law, and the trial supervision procedure should be initiated. The purpose of the Chinese Prosecutors Association is to unite prosecutors nationwide, promote procuratorial information and academic exchanges, study procuratorial theories, improve the professional level of prosecutors, and uphold the spirit of prosecutors being clean, honest, and strict in law enforcement. The association also bears the important responsibility of caring for the lives of prosecutors and safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. President Ying Yong and all colleagues of the Chinese Prosecutors Association, Huang Lijun was once a prosecutor like you, wearing the same badge and upholding the same beliefs, fighting for the protection of fairness and justice. Now he is in prison, and I implore you to examine his case file with the eyes of a fellow prosecutor and a legal professional, and to judge his innocence with the conscience of a prosecutor. Huang Lijun is over 60 years old and suffers from multiple diseases. I do not know if he can wear the procuratorial badge again, but I know that if he knows that the Chinese Prosecutors Association has spoken out for him, he will feel that his 38 years of dedication to the procuratorial cause have not been in vain. As the legal counsel for Huang Lijun's wife, Guo Hong, I implore your association to: First, pay attention to the serious problems of illegal evidence collection, concealment of evidence, and procedural violations in Huang Lijun's case, and propose supervisory suggestions to the relevant departments from the perspective of safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of prosecutors and upholding judicial justice. Second, pay attention to the illegal evidence collection behavior of procuratorial personnel in the case handling process, and promote the investigation and accountability of relevant responsible personnel to maintain the professional image and credibility of the procuratorial team. Third, pay attention to the progress of the retrial of Huang Lijun's case, and promote the initiation of the trial supervision procedure in accordance with the law, to restore the truth, restore the law to its dignity, and restore Huang Lijun's innocence. The Chinese Prosecutors Association is a place that understands prosecutors. Only prosecutors can truly understand the hardships and joys of prosecutors. Huang Lijun and Guo Hong have dedicated their best years to the procuratorial cause, and now they are in trouble. As their legal counsel, I implore your association to shed some light on their case. Huang Lijun said, 'He only wants the truth and does not accept being wronged.' I believe that under the care and supervision of your association, the truth will eventually be revealed, and justice will eventually be upheld. Legal person: Wen Donghai August 24, 2026