Oct. 13
CHINA:
Criminal Procedure Law to be amended
China will amend its Criminal Procedural Law, including the contents
concerning procedure for review of death sentences and custody system in
accordance with the spirit of the newly-revised Constitution and some
newly-signed international conventions.
The information was released by Huang Songyou, vice-president of the
Chinese Supreme People's Court, on the 2004 annual conference of the China
Law Society which was held in Guangzhou, capital of south China's
Guangdong Province. He said the amendment of Criminal Procedure Law has
been listed into the legislature plan of the 10th National People's
Congress (NPC).
Enacted in 1979, China's Criminal Procedural Law was given a major
overhaul in 1996.
China needs to revise the law on a large scale again, because it has
signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights since 1996
and has enshrined a human rights clause into the Constitution, noted
Huang.
According to the current Criminal Procedure Law, death sentencecases shall
be submitted to the Supreme People's Court for review and approval.
However, in most cases, the Supreme People's Court reviewed death penalty
cases merely through reading written reports, but did not try the case at
all.
Huang claimed that the law will be revised to reform the death penalty
review procedure. In future, the Supreme People's Court will review death
penalty cases by trying the accused.
According to Huang, revision will also be made to rule out the possibility
of illegally-prolonged custody.
(source: Xinhua News Agency)
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Death penalty under the spotlight in China
China is to revise its law on approving death penalties to prevent human
rights violations and miscarriages of justice, state media reported on
Wednesday.
Under the reforms, appeals against death sentences would have to be heard
by China's high court. The court currently makes its decisions based
solely on written reports.
Huang Songyou, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said the
changes to the procedure were on the books of the National People's
Congress, China's legislature, Xinhua news agency said.
"China needs to revise the law on a large scale again, because it has
signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights
since 1996 and has enshrined a human rights clause into the constitution,"
Xinhua quoted Huang as saying.
'China needs to revise the law on a large scale again'
Current laws dictate that all death penalty cases are submitted to China's
high court for review and approval, but the court makes its decisions
based on written reports instead of hearing the cases.
China executes about 10 000 convicted criminals every year, according to
Chinese academics, 5 times more than all the death penalty cases from
other nations combined.
China refused to publicise the exact number executed and regards the
judicial killings as a tightly guarded state secret.
Amnesty International has called for a moratorium on the death penalty in
China, saying the country's dysfunctional criminal justice system meant
many innocent people were being executed.
(source: South African Press Agency)
