Criminal Justice
About 14.5 percent of criminal suspects in Beijing meet with a lawyer during the first 48 hours of detention, according to an article in the Beijing Youth Daily. In cooperation with an NPC inspection of the implementation of the PRC Lawyers Law, the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) surveyed 51,184 criminal detentions between October 2003 and April 2005 and found that only 7,425 suspects met with lawyers during the first 48 hours of detention. A PSB official attributed the low rate to poor legal consciousness, a perception on the part of suspects that lawyers won't do them any good, and financial barriers faced by suspects.
Prosecutors must exclude illegally obtained testimony when deciding whether or not to indict a suspect, declared a Vice President of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on May 26. According to an article in the China Youth Daily, the SPP Vice President said that "All oral evidence illegally obtained through torture or violence or illegally collected through intimidation, enticement, or fraud, etc. should be considered illegal evidence and resolutely excluded in accordance with the law." When police or prosecutors have collected evidence without strict respect for the law, they must collect the evidence anew or take other remedial measures before they can use it as a basis for a criminal charge.
On June 4, Sichuan provincial authorities released Huang Qi after he completed a five-year prison sentence for subversion. According to the Voice of America, however, authorities have forbidden Huang to return to Chengdu, where his wife resides, and are forcing him to remain in the village where he is officially registered. In a VOA interview after his release, Huang said:
China's highest court and procuratorate have issued an Interpretation (in Chinese and an unofficial English translation) adjusting the threshold for transfer of IPR infringement cases from administrative adjudication to criminal enforcement. Through the various IP Laws (unofficial English translations available here and China's Criminal Law) Chinese law includes both a remedy for an individual rightsholder through a civil law suit and criminal provisions that carry fines and prison sentences for commercial operations that sell infringing goods. China's December 2001 accession to the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property requires these remedies.
California businessman David Ji, who has been detained in Sichuan province since October 2004 in connection with a business dispute, faces a key date in his case on May 29. Sichuan police have been holding Mr. Ji under "residential surveillance" since November 2004, alleging that he and his U.S. company committed fraud in dealings with a Sichuan business firm. The legally prescribed period for residential surveillance will expire on May 29, and Sichuan authorities in theory should have to decide whether to charge Mr. Ji with a crime or to release him. (For details on the case, see an earlier CECC story here.)
Public security offices in three Chinese districts have launched a pilot project that will allow criminal suspects to request the presence of an attorney for audio and videotaping during criminal interrogations, according to an article in the Legal Daily. Scholars from the Procedural Research Center at the Chinese University of Politics and Law in Beijing, which reportedly designed the project, chose Haidian district, Beijing; Baiyin district, Gansu; and Jiaozhu city, Henan as the three pilot districts. In at least one of the districts, organizers appear to have enlisted local law firms to assist.
Procuratorates across China will focus on addressing the problem of torture and coerced confessions this year, according to a report in the Legal Daily. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced the new effort during a national work conference on the supervision of criminal investigations. An SPP official reportedly declared that in the wake of the She Xianglin wrongful conviction case and reports of similar cases, the procuratorate will make eliminating the problem of torture and coerced confessions a priority. The official noted that the procuratorates would also work to address law enforcement corruption, illegal investigation and evidence collection methods, illegal bail, and other problems.
A commentator in the Procuratorial Daily criticized the notion that 100 percent criminal conviction rates demonstrate the high quality of law enforcement in China. The commentator carefully discusses recent official praise for basic level procuratorates that have 100 percent conviction rates, citing four reasons why conviction rates should not be a measure of the quality of law enforcement.
Chinese government statistics on the criminal justice system in 2004 demonstrate that criminal suspects stand little chance of escaping criminal penalties once police decide to pursue formal charges against them. The numbers also show that Chinese trial courts rarely acquit criminal suspects at trial. According to various official sources:
Embattled Chinese defense lawyer Guo Guoting has arrived in Canada to participate in an international research conference, according to a Boxun report. Guo, recognized for his legal representation of activists, has defended journalists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other lawyers who have run afoul of Chinese authorities. On March 4, the Shanghai Justice Bureau upheld an earlier decision to suspend Guo’s law license for one year after he was accused of "adopting positions and making statements contrary to the law and the Constitution" and "defiling and slandering" the Communist Party and government (see related story here). Shortly afterward, Shanghai police placed Guo under house arrest (see related story here).