The final verdict of Wuhan's "Breaking Bad Man Case" was announced: the drug-related crime was revoked and the sentence was changed to the crime of illegal operation

Zhang Zhengbo's drug-related case, which was called the "Breaking Bad" case by the media, has a final verdict.

On May 5, Zhang Zhengbo's defense lawyer Zhu Mingyong told The Paper that he had recently received a second-instance verdict from the Hubei High People's Court on the case, and the court revoked the four people involved in the case who had previously been convicted of the crimes of smuggling, trafficking, transporting, and manufacturing drugs, and sentenced them to illegal business operations, of which Zhang Zhengbo was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In this case, whether the administration of psychotropic substances was equivalent to drugs has always been the focus of contention between the prosecution and defense. In its judgment of the second instance, the Hubei High Court made it clear that only psychotropic substances that are abused by drug addicts out of control are drugs.

The American drama "Breaking Bad" tells the crime story of a chemistry teacher who makes drugs. Zhang Zhengbo is a postdoctoral fellow returnee who was an associate professor at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Huazhong University of Science and Technology at the time of the crime. In previous media reports, Zhang Zhengbo, who was accused of drug-related crimes, was also known as the "Breaking Bad" because of his status as a faculty member of his university.

The battle between drugs and non-drugs

According to the case materials, since 2005, Zhang Zhengbo and his college classmate Yang Chaohui established Wuhan Kaiman Chemical Co., Ltd., whose products include "3,4-methylenedioxymethcathinone", "2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine", "4-methylethylethylphenethylone", etc., all of which are sold to Britain, the United States and other countries and regions.

The Paper previously reported that on November 2014, 11, the Postal Inspection Department of the Wuhan Customs Office at the Airport seized a package from Kaiman Company containing white crystals "25,3-methylenedioxymethcathinone", which is a class of psychotropic drugs controlled by the state, and the psychotropic substance is classified as "No. 4" product in the company.

On March 2017, 3, the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court rendered a first-instance judgment in the case, which mentioned that in 28, the relevant products were listed as a class of psychotropic drugs controlled by the state, and after 2013, Yang Chaohui and others continued to illegally produce the above products and smuggle and sell them abroad.

The first-instance judgment found that among the four defendants involved in the case, Yang Chaohui was responsible for product sales orders and customer contact; Zhang Zhengbo is responsible for technical guidance; Feng Jing is responsible for receiving payment, issuing production instructions, purchasing raw materials, packaging and delivery, and courier tracking; Bao Junxi is responsible for developing new products, improving product processes and guiding workers in production. The four defendants were convicted of smuggling, trafficking, transporting and manufacturing drugs in the first instance, and were sentenced to suspended death sentences ranging from a maximum to 4 years in prison. Among them, Zhang Zhengbo was sentenced to life imprisonment.

After the defendant appealed, on April 2018, 4, the Hubei High Court ruled that the case was "unclear in facts and insufficient evidence", revoked the original judgment, and remanded for retrial. On November 25 of the same year, the retrial of the case opened at the Wuhan Intermediate Court.

On June 2019, 6, the Wuhan Intermediate Court pronounced a judgment in the first instance of the retrial of the case. The court still held that Yang Chaohui, Zhang Zhengbo, Feng Jing and Bao Junxi violated the state's regulations on the management of a class of psychotropic substances that have been included in the control by illegally manufacturing and selling them to individuals abroad, and their acts constituted the crime of smuggling, trafficking, transporting and manufacturing drugs.

However, the retrial changed the sentence. The court found that because the four people voluntarily surrendered, truthfully confessed the facts of the crime, and surrendered voluntarily, the sentence was changed to lenient in accordance with the law. Among them, Zhang Zhengbo's sentence was commuted from the original life imprisonment in the first instance to 4 years in prison.

Zhang Zhengbo and others were dissatisfied with the verdict and appealed again. "A class of psychotropic substances under control is not necessarily equivalent to drugs." Zhang Zhengbo and his defense lawyers Zhu Mingyong and Liu Chang believe that psychotropic drugs have dual attributes, and whether they are drugs depends on whether they flow into illegal channels to cause harm. The "No. 4" produced by Zhang Zhengbo's company can be used to make drugs and medicines, but the prosecutors have not found out the whereabouts of "No. 4" and failed to prove that "No. 4" flowed to drug addicts and drug dealers, and cannot be identified as "drugs".

Final trial: The original conviction was inaccurate, resulting in improper sentencing

According to the final judgment rendered by the Hubei High Court on May 2023, 5, provided by Zhu Mingyong, the Hubei High Court adopted the defender's defense opinion that none of the four appellants in the case constituted the crime of smuggling, trafficking, transportation, and manufacturing drugs.

The Hubei High Court said that after investigation, the drugs illegally manufactured and sold by Wuhan Kaiman Company were a class of psychotropic drugs controlled by the state. Psychotropic drugs have dual attributes, whether they are circulated through legal sales channels or illegal sales channels, as long as they are used normally by patients to play a curative role, they are drugs; Drugs are considered drugs only if they are abused by drug addicts when they are out of control. Therefore, psychotropic substances listed in the Catalogue of Varieties of Psychotropic Substances are not automatically equivalent to drugs.

The Hubei High Court believes that Wuhan Kaiman Company has been engaged in drug research and development, manufacturing and sales since its establishment. On January 2014, 1, after the release of the Catalogue of Psychotropic Drugs, some of the drugs manufactured and sold by Wuhan Kaiman Company were listed as a class of psychotropic drugs controlled by the state, but Yang Zhaohui and Zhang Zhengbo continued to organize the production and sale of psychotropic drugs in order to obtain profits. Although the investigative authorities collected the emails of Yang Zhaohui contacting some overseas buyers, the content of the relevant emails could not prove the identity of the overseas buyers, nor could they prove that the overseas buyers purchased psychotropic drugs for medical purposes or entered the drug market, so the evidence in the case was insufficient to prove that Wuhan Kaiman Company and Yang Zhaohui and others had the subjective intention to sell state-controlled psychotropic substances as substitutes for drugs, nor could they prove that the psychotropic substances sold by the company flowed into the drug market.

The Hubei High Court held that Wuhan Kaiman Company violated the national drug administration regulations by manufacturing and selling state-controlled Class I psychotropic drugs without permission, disrupting market order, and its behavior constituted the crime of illegal operation. The four appellants were held criminally liable in accordance with the persons directly responsible for the crimes committed by the unit.

The Hubei High Court held that the basic facts determined by the original judgment were clear, the evidence was true and sufficient, and the trial procedure was lawful, but the conviction was inaccurate, and the sentence was improper, which was corrected according to law. In summary, the final judgment revoked the previous drug-related charges and sentenced four people to illegal business operations, ranging from 4 to 8 years in prison.

Surging news reporter Wang Xuanhui