Law revision to outlaw torture for confessions
By Guo Qiang (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-07-14 15:40

China's top legislature is considering revising the country's Criminal Procedure Law next year, highlighting the prevention of the torture for extortion of confessions, the Beijing News reported Thursday.

"The use of torture to extract confessions is regarded as the biggest unfairness in China's current criminal proceeding and how to clamp down the police misconduct should be given priority through law," said Chen Guangzhong, head of the Center for Criminal Procedure Law and former president of China University of Political Science and Law.

The call for revision of the criminal procedure law came when cases of injustice were exposed, including the case that a man named She Xianglin, 39, from Shayang County of Hubei Province, was proved innocent after spending 11 years in jail for "murdering" his wife following her unexpected appearance. The other was Nie Shubin, who was sentenced to death in 1994 for a rape and homicide and was executed. But the rapist and killer was identified and arrested early this year.

Chen Weidong, professor of Renmin University of China, was quoted as saying that China's current Criminal Procedure Law is hard to be implemented with lots of loopholes in it.

"China's current Law contains only 225 articles, but the judicial explanations and related provisions add up to more than 1,400. The authority of the Law has been greatly discounted due to contradictions and mutual restrictions among the superfluous explanations and provisions," Chen said.

"At least 200 articles will be added to the current law when it is revised," he added.

While the current Criminal Procedure Law strictly prohibits the use of any forms of torture in police custody, a lack of relevant concrete provisions has actually led to the "biggest unfairness," he said.

He disclosed that the revision of the law will place emphasis on the establishment of the principles of the 'presumption of innocence' and 'rule of lenity' in hope of cracking down the police brutality.

According to relevant sources, China's top legislators are stepping up efforts to promote the revision of the law and expected to present the revised proposal to the National People's Congress in 2006 and get it approved in 2007.

A source on condition of anonymity said the current Criminal Procedure Law lags behind the changing situation and the 10th National People's Congress has placed the revision of the law in its legislative agenda.

"At present, the revision of the Law is just on a phase of discussing and researching without any elaborating draft."

China's first Criminal Procedure Law was approved and enacted on July 1, 1979 and was revised for the first time in 1996.

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