Criminal Justice
Chinese authorities released writer Chen Shaowen on August 5, following the completion of his three-year sentence for inciting subversion, the Independent Chinese Pen Center (ICPC) reported on August 8. The ICPC reported that they were able to contact Chen by phone, but that he was not willing to discuss matters relating to his imprisonment. The report said that Chen's health had been deteriorating during his time in prison, and that police guards had beaten him in May 2005.
Chinese authorities released journalist Wu Shishen from Beijing's main prison in July, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) reported on August 2. Police detained Wu and his wife, Ma Tao, in Beijing in October 1992 and accused Wu of providing an advance copy of a speech by Jiang Zemin to a journalist for the Hong Kong Express (Kuaibao). In August 1993, the Beijing Intermediate People's Court sentenced Wu to life imprisonment for selling state secrets (his wife received a six-year sentence). In November 2004, the Dui Hua Foundation reported that officials had granted Wu a sentence reduction, and that his release was expected on July 10, 2005.
The Chinese news media have stepped up a publicity campaign that highlights government efforts to reduce the prevalence of torture and coerced confessions. In late July, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced that it had filed criminal cases against 1,751 officials for human rights violations since July 2004, an increase of 7.7 percent over the year before. The SPP also published descriptions of three "typical" cases of "strictly investigating" cases involving torture and abuse. At the same time, Chinese news media have suggested that forthcoming amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) will focus on enhanced legal protections against torture, including a rule to grant lawyers better access to their clients during interrogations.
The High People's Court in Hunan province upheld on June 2 a lower court's conviction of journalist Shi Tao for disclosing state secrets, according to Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists. On April 27, the Changsha Intermediate People's Court found Shi guilty and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. Guo Guoting, Shi's attorney, was not permitted to defend Shi because Chinese authorities had revoked Guo's law license on February 24, and then placed him under house arrest in mid-March. Shi was detained in November 2004 as part of a Chinese government crackdown on writers, journalists, and intellectuals.
In early 2005, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) launched a campaign against newspapers and periodicals published without government authorization. The campaign concluded with authorities banning 60 newspapers and magazines. In May 2005, Liu Binjie, deputy director with the GAPP, told a reporter that these illegal periodicals, including "China Economics," "Prosperous China," "Finance and Technology," "Contemporary Mathematics and Administration," "A Guide to Government Procurement," and "Chinese and Foreign Legal Systems" were "garbage" and constituted a "threat." In June 2005, the Yangzi Evening News (a publication of Xinhua, China's official news agency) quoted an unnamed official in the Jiangsu provincial Office of Press and Publication Administration, who provided the following additional details regarding the campaign:
Chinese writer Zhang Lin pleaded innocent to charges of subversion at a hearing in the Intermediate People's Court in Bengbu, Anhui province, Agence France Presse and the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on June 21.
The alleged victim of a Shaanxi man charged with murder last year turned up alive in a neighboring province, according to a report in the Financial Times. Police accused Yue Tuyuan of murder after an acquaintance of his disappeared last year and an unidentified body was found in a nearby river. During an interview with prosecutors, Yue claimed police tortured him into confessing the crime, but prosecutors claimed they had DNA evidence and Yue relented and repeated the confession. The charge was only dropped after the alleged victim was found, but police never informed Yue of that fact and charged him with fraud instead. A court convicted him of that crime.
The China Youth Daily (CYD) has published a commentary questioning the hiring of committees of legal scholars to produce "expert opinions" in criminal cases. Scholarly committees submit such opinions, which typically address both factual and legal issues in individual criminal cases, to courts adjudicating the cases. The CYD commentator concludes that courts should not accept such opinions for several reasons. First, scholars are authoritative and have influence, so the submission of expert opinions is in fact a form of interference with the independence of the court. Second, because defendants pay the experts, the opinions are not an objective research product. Third, the commentator notes that wealthy defendants tend to hire such scholarly committees and thus gain an unfair advantage.
Chinese authorities claim to have uncovered evidence of a new crime of fraud in the case of detained New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, just as the maximum pre-trial detention period in his case was set to expire. Law enforcement officials, who are investigating Zhao on charges that he revealed "state secrets," had already extended Zhao's pre-trial detention to the maximum seven months by invoking several legal exceptions. Under Chinese law, the new charge permits police to reset the pre-trial detention clock in Zhao's case back to zero and to hold Zhao for up to another seven months. While police have reportedly transferred the state secrets charges to prosecutors for an indictment decision, Zhao's defense lawyer says he has been unable to visit his client and has not been informed of the evidence that investigators have.