Li Zhongcheng

 

According to China’s Constitution and laws, the duty of procuratorate departments is not simply prosecuting criminals and procuratorates are not simply departments for public prosecution. Essentially, they are the legal supervision departments of the state. In order to implement the constitutional principle of “respecting and protecting human rights,” procuratorate departments fulfill their duty of legal supervision in various sectors such as investigation, arrest ratification and prosecution to protect citizens’ legal rights and interests. In recent years, procuratorate departments nationwide have loyally fulfilled their duties prescribed by the Constitution and laws and have pragmatically strengthened the work of judicial protection of human rights to actively promote development of China’s human rights cause.

 

 

Centered on the general task of constructing a “safe and law-based China” and based on the principles of putting people first and enforcing law for the people, procuratorate departments in China stick to their procuratorial functions and punish criminals for infringing on citizens’ personal and property rights to ensure people’s livelihood, public order and national security.

 

From 2008 to 2012, procuratorate departments ratified the arrest of 2,642,067 serious criminal suspects such as mafia-like gangs, serious violent criminals, those involved in repeated property infringement and criminals involved in narcotic drugs, according to the law. They filed public prosecution cases against 2,965,467 people and prosecuted 11,251 criminal suspects who made and sold fake or low-quality drugs and poisoned food, in order to severely punish criminals who harm people’s life and health. They prosecuted 18,752 people who were suspected of kidnapping, or trafficking in women and children, in order to strengthen judicial protection for women, children, the disabled and the aged. They prosecuted 640 criminal suspects who illegally sold, provided or acquired citizens’ personal information, in order to strengthen judicial protection for citizens’ personal information. They focused on the investigation of dereliction of duty-related crimes in areas such as land expropriation, housing relocation, social welfare, the ecological environment, work safety and law-enforcement. They deepened and launched special work to protect against harming people’s livelihood and dereliction of duty, in a long-lasting manner; filed cases and investigated 50,796 public servants in 37,054 cases of dereliction of duty and infringement of citizen’s rights, including 465 public servants involved in cases such as poisoned milk powder, lean meat powder, swill-cooked dirty oil and toxic medicine capsules. They filed cases against and investigated 4,365 public servants in dereliction of duty-related crimes such as interfering in the investigation of grave incidents such as fire disasters and mine accidents, and filed cases against and investigated 36,900 administrative law enforcement officers and 12,894 judicial staff by strictly handling dereliction of duty-related crimes related to judicial injustice.[page]

 

 

A. Pragmatically protecting the right to defense of criminal suspects and defendants.

 

First is to ensure that criminal suspects and defendants can have timely access to defense counsel. According to the Criminal Procedure Law, after the criminal suspect is interrogated by an investigation organ for the first time or from the day on which compulsory measures are adopted against him, he shall have the right to hire defense counsel. Defendants have the right to hire defense counsel anytime. In cases where criminal suspects and defendants need to hire defense counsel while in custody, the people’s procuratorates shall convey such requests in a timely way.

 

Second is to enhance the coverage of legal aid. According to the Criminal Procedure Law, if the defendant is blind, deaf or mute, or if he is a minor, and thus has not hired defense counsel, or there is the possibility that the defendant may be sentenced to death and yet he has not hired defense counsel, the people’s court shall designate a lawyer that is obligated to provide legal aid to serve as counsel.

 

Third is to protect lawyers’ rights in their professional field. Efforts should be made to pragmatically protect lawyers’ rights to meet criminal suspects and defendants in custody; consult; extract and duplicate case files from the date on which the people’s procuratorate begins to examine a case for prosecution; and obtain evidence to prove the criminal suspect innocent or to prove the crime to be minor. In order to pragmatically protect lawyers’ rights in their professional field, in cases where the defendant or the agent ad litem believes their litigation rights according to law are blocked and thus complains or accuses the people’s procuratorate, the people’s procuratorate should make an investigation within 10 days after receiving the complaint or accusation. If the charges are verified, the people’s procuratorates should notify relevant departments to make rectification and reply in writing to the defendant or agent ad litem who made the complaint or accusation.[page]

 

B. Preventing and restricting rights infringement activities such as extorting confessions by torture.

 

First is the principle of forbidding self-incrimination so as to ensure the principle of free will in confessions by criminal suspects and defendants.

 

Second is to listen to criminal suspect’s explanations and lawyer’s opinions in the phase of examining arrests. In the process of examining and approving arrests, the people’s procuratorates can interrogate the criminal suspect. In cases where there are doubts about the arrest conditions, the criminal suspect is required to make a face-to-face statement or there are clues showing illegal activities in the investigation process such as extorting confessions by torture or obtaining evidence by force, people’s procuratorates should interrogate the criminal suspect. When the defense lawyer has queries, the people’s procuratorate should listen to the lawyer’s opinion.

 

Third is to strictly follow the rule of illegal evidence exclusion. The confessions of criminal suspects and defendants collected by illegal means such as torture and the testimony of witnesses and statements of victims collected through illegal means such as force and threats should be excluded according to the law and should not be used as evidence for requesting arrest, approving or deciding upon arrest, transferring for investigation and indictment or filing prosecutions. Meanwhile, when people’s procuratorates discover that investigators have collected evidence through illegal means in the phases of investigation, examination, prosecution and trial, the procuratorates should check the case in a timely way through investigation. When necessary, procuratorial departments in charge of cases involving duty and infringement on citizen’s rights should intervene.

 

Fourth is to take the detainee or arrestee into custody. The detainee should be immediately transferred to the detention house within 24 hours. The arrestee should be immediately sent to the detention house. Investigators should interrogate the detainee in the detention house.[page]

 

C. Implementing the system of examining the necessity of taking into custody after being arrested.

 

 According to the amended Criminal Procedure Law, during the time from when the criminal suspect or defendant is arrested until the court makes an effective judgment, the people’s procuratorate shall continue to examine the need for detainment. If there is no need to continue the detainment, it shall make a suggestion to release the criminal suspect or change to another compulsory measure. From January to July last year, the procuratorates made necessity examination suggestions in 1,805 cases to the public security departments and investigation departments of procuratorates, involving 2,301 people. Suggestions for 1,626 cases, involving 2,078 people, were adopted.

 

D. Strengthening internal supervision and restraint.

 

 First is to promote reform of the case management mechanism. The people’s procuratorates have established special wings to manage cases, aiming to strengthen management of the case handling process and its quality. As of 2012, a total of 2,667 procuratorates had established case management wings to accept, circulate and transfer the examination of cases handled by various departments, conduct process management and early-warning supervision on case-handling timeframes and procedures, manage sealed, frozen and handled funds related to cases in a unified manner, release legal documents, check and evaluate case-handling quality and conduct comprehensive assessments on procuratorial work.

 

Second is to strengthen supervision and restraint regarding the work of handling dereliction of duty-related crimes. Efforts should be made to promote the system of synchronous video and audio recording in trying criminal suspects of dereliction of duty-related crime and launch reforms such as upgrading the authorities by one level that examine the arrests for dereliction of duty-related crime cases and the protest right and investigation right being exercised by different departments.

 

Third is to strengthen supervision and inspection related to law-enforcement activities. Measures should be taken to promote a procuratorial affairs inspection system, establish a case assessment mechanism, continuously launch special inspections such as the utilization of frozen funds, management and utilization of police vehicles and apparatuses and standardization of safe and civilized law enforcement so as to solve prominent problems in handling cases due to violating laws and regulations. In 2012, people’s complaints and reports about procuratorial officials dropped by 32.7 percent over 2008.[page]

 

 

A. Strengthening supervision of investigation and trial activities.

 

In addition to punishing criminals according to law, people’s procuratorates put more stress on human rights protection with a focus on supervising and rectifying problems such as extorting confessions through torture, abusing compulsory measures and heavy sentencing. From 2008 to 2012, people’s procuratorates urged investigation departments to file 118,490 cases that should have been filed but were not filed, and cancelled 56,248 cases that should not have been filed. They also put forward 177,819 rectification opinions targeting illegal activities in investigations, launched special inspections regarding the legal supervision of criminal trials, promoted reform related to suggestions for penalty measures, protested 24,178 wrong criminal judgments and put forward rectification opinions 34,636 times targeting legal violations in criminal trials.

 

B. Strengthening supervision over the enforcement of criminal penalties and management.

 

 If there is no need to continue detention, a suggestion shall be made to release the criminal suspect or replace detention with another compulsory measure. Efforts should be made to promote Internet connection with law-enforcement information in supervision sites, and supervise connection and strengthen and standardize construction of procuratorate offices stationed at supervision sites. From 2008 to 2012, people’s procuratorates put forward rectification opinions 110,656 times targeting legal violations related to enforcing criminal penalties and supervision, launched special inspections regarding medical parole and carrying out penalty changes for criminals convicted of dereliction of duty, rectified cases of improper penalty reduction, release on parole or serving a sentence outside of jail involving 52,068 people, launched special inspections such as supervision of law enforcement in detention houses and identifying hidden dangers in prisons with relevant departments, sought and solved problems such as jailhouse bullies to promote law-based, civilized and safe jails, cleared out the cases that had not been solved for a long time with public security departments and people’s courts, and rectified the status of 1,894 people in extended custody.[page]

 

C. Strengthening supervision of dereliction of duty and rights infringement by judicial staff.

 

In July 2010, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and related departments formulated and issued Several Regulations on Strengthening Legal Supervision of Dereliction of Duty by Judicial Staff in Litigation Activities (trial), making clear that procuratorate departments can have legal supervision over 12 activities involving dereliction of duty and rights infringement by judicial staff through consulting case files according to law, putting forward rectification opinions and suggesting changing the officials handling cases. It also clarifies that in cases where judicial staff extort confessions through torture, collect evidence by force or abuse detainees in litigation activities, procuratorate departments should investigate for verification and investigate responsibility according to the law.

 

 

China’s procuratorate departments will take effective measures to continue to enhance human rights protection and protect judicial authority and public credibility.

 

A. China’s procuratorate departments will further deepen procuratorial reform with a focus on reforming and improving procuratorial affairs publicity mechanisms to strengthen publicity about law-enforcement cases, law-enforcement procedures, case-handling processes and summary legal documents of procuratorate departments; strengthen publicity to people involved and their close relatives, defendants and media; form a publicity system and mechanism that includes publicity timing, contents, targets and approaches; and pragmatically enhance transparency of law enforcement and case handling.

 

B. Seizing time in order to improve relevant systems and earnestly implement regulations related to legal supervision of the review of death sentences under the modified Criminal Procedure Law. In cases where the Supreme People’s Procuratorate finds that the death penalty should not be approved, discovers new conditions or new evidence that may influence the verdict, or uncovers activities that seriously violate legal procedures and may influence the justice of trials, it can put forward opinions to the Supreme People’s Court according to law in case of necessary post-examination.[page]

 

C. Improving the law-enforcement level by focusing on facts, evidence, procedures and application of the law. Efforts should be made to correctly control the standards for examining arrests and examining prosecutions; strengthen supervision of investigation and trial activities; intensify supervision of problems such as illegally collecting evidence, abusing compulsory measures and infringing on prosecution rights; reform and improve self-rectification mechanisms related to wrongful judgments; stick to the bottom line of preventing wrongful convictions; and pragmatically strengthen judicial protection of human rights.

 

(Li Zhongcheng is Deputy General of the Procuratorial Department of Dereliction of Duty and Infringement of Citizen’s Rights of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. This is a speech at the Beijing forum on human rights.)