All criminal cases to have defense lawyers

China will expand nationwide this year a pilot project assigning criminal defense lawyers to represent defendants in criminal cases who don't have lawyers to protect their human rights, a senior official from the Ministry of Justice said.

In October, the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Justice jointly decided to conduct the pilot program for all criminal defense cases in eight provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Henan and Guangdong.

"We will expand the program across the country this year, after summing up successful experiences from the pilot programs," Zhou Yuansheng, director of the Department of Directing Lawyers and Notarization at the Ministry of Justice, said in an exclusive interview.