Criminal Justice

Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak learned of a new prison holding at least some Tibetan political prisoners during his November 20-December 2, 2005, visit to Beijing, Lhasa, and Urumqi, according to a March 10 "advance edited version" of Nowak’s report on his China visit. The new Qushui Prison is located in Qushui (Chushur) county near Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

The Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court (IPC) exonerated a man of a robbery charge two years after it initially convicted and sentenced him to death for the same crime, according to a March 2 Legal Daily article (in Chinese). After an initial conviction on March 11, 2004, Cao Hongbing appealed his death sentence to the Chongqing High People's Court (HPC). On December 7, 2004, the Chongqing HPC vacated the lower court's order and remanded the case for retrial. During the retrial, held on March 30, 2005, Cao retracted his original admission of guilt to the police and asserted that his admission was coerced. The Chongqing IPC exonerated Cao on February 27, concluding upon retrial that:

Xu Wei and Jin Haike, sentenced to 10-year prison terms for participating in occasional meetings of the New Youth Study Group, a discussion group of young intellectuals, and for disseminating articles over the Internet, will become eligible for parole on March 13. Yang Zili and Zhang Honghai, two other prisoners sentenced for their participation in the group, became eligible for parole on March 13 of last year.

The New Youth Study Group met at several Beijing universities, but had no source of funding, never agreed on a common political platform, and after their first meeting never held another with all members present, according to a April 23, 2004, Washington Post article.

The Handan Intermediate People's Court in Hebei province sentenced He Feng, former Party secretary of Dingzhou city, to life imprisonment for authorizing the shootings of villagers protesting inadequate land compensation, according to a February 9 report by the Voice of America (VOA) and a February 10 report by Ming Pao Daily (both in Chinese). Both sources noted that the court imposed the death penalty on four other defendants, but did not disclose their names. Victims expressed their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the case, and one villager told VOA that authorities had failed to conduct a thorough investigation and punish higher ranking officials who may have been involved.

Prison officials subjected activist Zhao Changqing to repeated beatings and long periods of solitary confinement at Weinan Prison in Shaanxi province, according to a February 8 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release. HRIC reported that, most recently, authorities held Zhao in solitary confinement for 40 days for refusing to sing "Socialism is Good" and other songs praising the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system during a flag-raising ceremony at the prison. HRIC said that in another incident, prison inmates reportedly beat Zhao after he conversed with another prisoner who is a Falun Gong practitioner. Zhao's sister described her brother’s condition to Radio Free Asia in a report (in Chinese) published February 9:

Several hundred villagers protested and clashed with public security officials on February 5 in Dongshigu village, Linyi city, Shandong province, as officials beat and detained villager Chen Hua, according to a February 6 Reuters report. Chen received the official mistreatment after he came near the heavily-guarded home of human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who brought international news media attention in 2005 to violent abuses by Linyi population planning officials. Villagers overturned police vehicles and public security officials called for reinforcements and threw stones at the villagers, according to a February 8 Ming Pao report.

Imprisoned China Democracy Party (CDP) member Tong Shidong's sentence will expire on March 9, 2006, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S. NGO that advocates for prisoners of conscience in China. The Changsha Intermediate People's Court's initial sentence provides that Tong will be deprived of political rights for three years after release.

The high people's courts (HPCs) of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin municipalities, Hainan and Qinghai provinces, and the Tibet Autonomous Region all have reported that they currently handle death penalty appeals in court, according to a January 17 China Youth Daily article. These reports come several weeks after a Supreme People's Court (SPC) circular went into effect on January 1, requiring court hearings in all death penalty appeals beginning in the second half of 2006.