Criminal Justice

The number of RETL detainees in Guangzhou city has dropped significantly in recent years, with the total number of detainees at only 20 percent of that in 1995, according to officials cited in a Southern Metropolitan Daily report. The characteristics of RETL detainees in Guangzhou have also reportedly changed. Seventy to eighty percent of detainees are now from outside Guangdong province, and seventy percent of detainees are drug users.

In response to these shifts, RETL bureau officials are said to be coordinating with prison bureau officials to shift RETL resources towards the detention of individuals convicted of minor crimes in the criminal justice system. This potential reform is only in the planning stages, however, as problems linking administrative and criminal detention mechanisms have not been resolved.

According to an article in the Legal Daily, Beijing University Law Professor Chen Ruihua recently revealed that pending revisions to the Criminal Procedure Law may guarantee the right of defense lawyers to be present when prosecutors interrogate a criminal suspect. Chen reportedly indicated that the next round of revisions would also address the problem of extended detention, expand the right of victims to initiate private prosecutions, and enhance guarantees for the right of criminal defendants to defense attorneys.

According to an article in the Procuratorial Daily, a China Law Society discussion group held a study symposium on the problem of confessions extorted through torture. The CLS organizers reportedly called the meeting to promote implementation of the 2004 constitutional amendment protecting human rights. The article cites participants as offering the view that the "problem" of torture reflects poor investigative capacity and poor personnel quality. Participants also said that the rate at which cases are "broken" should not be the sole basis for evaluating the work of investigators work.

According to an article published in the People’s Daily on January 31, the Supreme People’s Court has designated the death penalty review system as one of ten key subjects to be researched in 2005. Observers noted that the announcement marks the start of the process to reform China’s death penalty review system. However, if the research timetable discussed in the article is any indication, reform of the review system is still at least a year away. The SPC is reportedly putting the research effort out for bid. Research groups have until the end of this March to apply for the project and will then have until March 2006 to complete their investigation and study report. The NPC Standing Committee would then need to approve any changes by amending the Organic Law of the People’s Courts.

According to Ministry of Public Security statistics released February 3, public security agencies filed 4,718,000 criminal cases in 2004, a 7.4 percent increase over 2003. More than 86 percent of the total cases filed, or 4,060,000 cases, involved property crimes. However, the number of filed cases involving explosions, arson, and rape reportedly declined 28.3 percent, 12.9 percent, and 9.8 percent, respectively, compared with 2003. Of the cases filed, 2,468,000 were solved, a 5.5 percent increase over last year, including 88.4 percent of cases involving violent crimes. The MPS also claims to have investigated more than 5,366,000 "public order" cases. Public order offenders are often punished by the MPS and not prosecuted in the criminal justice system.

In an article originally published in December 2004, the Procuratorial Daily examines the chronic absence of witnesses at Chinese trials and an experiment underway in Shenzhen to address the problem. According to the article, the percentage of witnesses who appear in court for criminal, civil, and administrative cases combined is less than 10 percent, with even lower percentages for criminal trials. In Beijing and Shanghai, two of China’s most advanced legal locales, the percentage of witnesses appearing at criminal trials is reportedly only five percent. The authors also cite the shocking example of Nanning, Guangxi province, where the rates of witness attendance at criminal trials were 0.33 percent, 0.7 percent, and 1.27 percent for the years 2000, 2001, and 2002, respectively.

CECC Summary
A January 26 Xinhua report said that the Higher People’s Court of Sichuan province has commuted to life imprisonment a death sentence imposed on Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche (A'an Zhaxi), a popular Tibetan religious leader. The original sentence had been subject to a two-year reprieve, which expired January 26. The Court’s announcement came exactly two years after the same court upheld Tenzin Deleg’s conviction on appeal. According to the decision, "The court commuted [the] death penalty on A'an Zhaxi to [a] life term because he did not intentionally violate the relevant law specifications again during the execution period of the past two-year reprieve."

Boxun reports that Yang Tianshui, a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, contacted people to say that he has been released from custody and has returned home. The report did not provide further information. Boxun had previously reported that Chinese authorities detained Yang on December 24 in Hangzhou. On December 31 the Nanjing Public Security Bureau issued a warrant stating that Yang had been arrested on charges of "inciting subversion of state power."

According to the Independent Chinese PEN Center, Yang, aged 43, is a freelance writer who served ten years in prison from 1990-2000 on charges of "counter revolution." He is said to have remained under an order of deprivation of civil rights for a further four years, during which time he reportedly was detained twice for violation of the conditions of the order. Most recent was a 15-day imprisonment from 27 May to 11 June 2004 for his writings commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement.