18 Defendants Plead Guilty at CCTV Fire Trial

The trial of twenty one people charged in relation to a fire that last year engulfed the TVCC, a prominent building within the new CCTV headquarters, began on Tuesday at Beijing's No.2 Intermediate People's Court.

At 9am yesterday, the 21 accused including Xu Wei, former director of the office in charge of construction of the new headquarters, were escorted into the courtroom, one after another, by court officials.

After that, the prosecutor - the Second Branch of Intermediate People's Procuratorate of Beijing - read a nine-page indictment alleging that the defendants had committed the crime of causing an accident with dangerous goods.

Today's Legal Evening News reported that after the prosecutor had read the indictment, 18 of the 21 defendants pleaded guilty to the offence.

After the charges had been read, the court began hearing the case of each defendant individually.

According to yesterday's Beijing Evening News, Xu Wei, the first of the accused to face the court, pleaded guilty to the charge of causing an accident with dangerous goods. Despite reports that many media outlets had been excluded from the officially open trial, the Beijing Evening News, a popular daily newspaper published by the People' Daily Group, was permitted to enter the courtroom and monitor the trial.

The report described Xu as being very cooperative when answering the prosecutor's questions and how he admitted that the decision to set off the fireworks was his alone and that he didn't raise the idea with the construction office nor report it to his superiors at China Central Television.

"All we were planning to do was have a meal and set off some fireworks, just like hanging out with friends, so I didn't think there was any need to report it to my superiors" said Xu.

The report said Xu expressed regret about the incident.

"It shouldn't have happened, and has come at a considerable price, I really feel terrible about it" said Xu.

Considering the number of defendants involved, the court has set aside three to four days for the trial.

The EO learned that 33 lawyers had been hired to represent the 21 defendants.

Gao Zicheng, well-known for his recent role in defending another lawyer, Li Zhuang, in a high profile case that resulted in Li being jailed for falsifying evidence, is representing Xu Wei.

Open Trial?

According to Chinese law, all trials should be open to the public. There are four cases in which criminal trials maybe held in closed court, these include cases that involve state secrets, business secrets, concern individual privacy or involve juveniles.

As this case does not fit into any of the situations described above, ordinary people should be permitted to enter the courtroom after they have registered at the court.

However, when two EO reporters arrived at the court early yesterday morning, they discovered that most of reporters who had come to cover the case had been refused permission to enter the courtroom.

This is despite the fact that the courtroom in which the trial was being heard could sit 200 people.

A court worker told the EO that the courtroom was already full. However, when the EO reporter managed to get a glimpse of the courtroom, he found that there were many empty seats.

When he attempted to get closer to the courtroom, he was removed by officers of the court.

Relatives Also Refused Access

The EO reporter discovered that many of the relatives of the 21 defendants had also not been permitted to attend the hearing.

A woman surnamed Wu, sister-in-law of Xue Jiwei, one of the accused, complained of the injustice of the charges against Xue.

She described how all that Xue did was to help contact someone who was willing to transport the fireworks.

Five days after the CCTV fire, Xue was taken away by police from his home.

She also alleged that Xue has been in detention for the past 13 months and had not been given permission to meet with his relatives.

The EO learned that the court allowed only one relative to enter the courtroom to hear the trial.

The fire resulted in the death of one fireman and caused over 163 million yuan (23.99 million US dollars) in economic losses.

Links and Sources
Economic Observer: 央视大火案：公开的审理，沉痛的认罪(1) (Chinese)
Legal Evening News: 昨日庭审持续12小时 18人表示认罪 （法制晚报）(Chinese)
Beijing Evening News: 央视大火案21名被告人受审直击：新址办主任当庭认罪 (北京晚报)(Chinese)
Beijing News: 央视大火案多数被告认罪 （新京报）(Chinese)