Criminal Justice
According to an article published in the Procuratorial Daily on January 4, a local procuratorate in Fuzhou, Jiangsu province has made interviews of criminal suspects a mandatory part of the arrest review process. Under the PRC Criminal Procedure Law, public security organs may detain and investigate a suspect, but afterwards must apply to the procuratorate for approval of a formal arrest. Procuratorates review the case file in approving an arrest but, as the article suggests, do not typically interview the suspects themselves. Fuzhou procurators claim that they have declined to approve 23 arrests in the first year the policy was implemented and that the interviews have helped them to avoid wrongful arrests. They also argue that the interviews have helped them to uncover and rectify 29 cases involving illegal behavior (including extended detention, torture, and violations of criminal procedure) by public security authorities.
A January 31 Procuratorial Daily article summarizes recent discussions in Hefei, Anhui province, concerning the small percentage of criminal investigations that police actually transfer for prosecution. According to the report, police transferred only eight cases, or 1.5 percent, out of more than 500 cases involving economic crimes that they investigated last year. In China, police or public security agencies are considered "administrative" agencies, while procuratorates (prosecutors) and courts are considered "judicial" authorities.
In "China's Problem with Dissent," journalist Haoyu Zhang of BBC Chinese.com looks at what he describes as "China's continued intolerance of any form of political dissent." The article focuses on Ding Zilin, a retired university professor in her 70s, who leads the "Tiananmen Mothers." The group comprises Ding and a few other parents who lost sons and daughters during and after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Since that time, the Tiananmen Mothers have been calling on the Chinese government to apologize.
The article notes that the government's response to their request has been to subject them to "imprisonment, house-arrest, phone-tapping, and constant surveillance." According to the report, Ms. Ding had just told the BBC "I can't even go and get groceries without them following me and harassing me; neither Deng Xiaoping nor Jiang Zemin treated me as badly as…" when the phone line went dead.
Three main topics will be the likely focus of attention during the annual plenary sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to this article in the the Chinese language press.
The South China Morning Post reports that mainland Chinese activist Lu Min is preparing to file a lawsuit against state police for illegally detaining him after the death of ousted leader Zhao Ziyang. According to the SCMP, Lin said police abducted him and his wife on a street near his home in Xian on January 18, the day after Zhao died, and held them against their will until January 31, two days after he was cremated.
In an article published in English on January 27, Xinhua reviewed debate over abolition of the death penalty that took place at a recent symposium involving young Chinese criminal law scholars. According to the report, some scholars called for the abolition of the death penalty, arguing that the state has no right to deprive citizens of their right to life. In response, Vice-Minister of Justice Zhang Jun suggested that the government’s immediate goal is to limitthe application of the death penalty, but not abolish it. This will be accomplished by handing down more long-term prison sentences of 20 to 30 years. Zhang noted a recent MOJ survey indicating that criminals sentenced to life in prison are often released in 15 to 16 years. To address concerns about this trend, he recommended that criminals sentenced to life serve a minimum of 25 years of their terms.
Chinese police informed democracy activist Zhang Lin’s wife that he is being held in what the Chinese authorities call "criminal detention" for threatening state security, just as he was to be released from two weeks of administrative detention, according to a report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF). A Chinese language version of this story is available from Boxun. Chinese authorities regularly use charges of threatening state security to silence critics of the Communist Party and the government.
According to information provided by advocates for imprisoned American businessman Jude Shao, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has rejected a petition for retrial in the controversial case. In 1999, Shao was convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Shao maintains he paid all taxes and that he was unjustly prosecuted for his refusal to pay bribes to local officials. His detention and trial were marred by procedural irregularities, and a panel of Chinese criminal law experts retained by Shao issued a report raising serious questions about the evidentiary basis for his conviction.
The human rights organization "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF) reported on February 8 that Chinese police have told the wife of pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin that he has been ordered to serve two weeks administrative detention. According to RSF, security authorities arrested Zhang on January 29 in Bengbu, Anhui province, for posting articles on various Web sites.
On January 30, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported that Zhang Lin and Wang Tingjin had traveled to Beijing on January 27 for the funeral of Zhao Ziyang, but that their request to attend the funeral was rejected by the funeral committee set up by the Chinese Communist Party. ICHRD said that the two were arrested at the Bengbu train station upon their return on January 30, and that, while Wang was released after being detained for five hours, authorities told Zhang he would be detained for 15 days.
On February 7, 2005, the Dui Hua Foundation published details about instances of parole, sentence reduction, or potential sentence reduction for 56 Chinese political prisoners. According to the report, "On January 25, 2005, Dui Hua received parole and sentence reduction information on 56 individuals serving sentences for political offenses in China. The written information, in the form of four lists, was compiled by authoritative sources in China's central and provincial governments in response to requests for information made by the foundation's Executive Director, John Kamm, during visits to Beijing in November 2004 and January 2005."