Suspects arrested on criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty; that is the principle in theory. Yet, extracting confessions through torture undermines that tenet, since suspects would be presumed guilty.

Zhao Zuohai's is a case in point. Zhao was given death with a two-year reprieve, and he eventually stayed behind bars for 10 years for a crime he did not commit. Zhao's case is but one example, and points to the urgency of drafting detailed rules to prevent law enforcement officers from obtaining "confessions" using unlawful methods.

One stipulation is for courts to require defendants and their lawyers to provide clues as to who, when, where and how the unlawful evidence was extracted, if the defendants maintain that the proof provided was illegal.

China's Criminal Law is clear that law enforcement officers should never torture suspects to obtain evidence. But it fails to specify how any evidence extracted through torture can be prevented from being used in court to incriminate suspects.

Undue emphasis on achieving a high success rate in criminal cases has been the major reason why police officers use whatever means available to extract confessions. Along with the new stipulations, effective supervision over police behavior is also essential to ensure that the rules are strictly followed.

(China Daily 06/01/2010 page8)