China's top legislature to prevent forced confession

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China's top legislature will revise the Criminal Procedural Law to prevent judges from accepting confessions from tortured suspects and giving these suspects more defense options.

A draft amendment submitted Wednesday to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee states that "evidence and confessions collected through torture, violence and threats should not be accepted."

"Procuratorial organs should investigate allegations of collecting evidence through illegal methods," according to the draft.

Interrogators suspected of collecting confessions or evidence through illegal methods should be prosecuted as criminals, it said.

It also states that all interrogations of criminal suspects should be conducted in detention houses and that the entire interrogation should be videotaped in the most serious criminal cases, according to the draft amendment.

Legal experts say the draft amendment will help improve the protection of criminal suspects' human rights following repeated cases of forced confessions and mismanaged justice in China.

Last year, Zhao Zuohai in central Henan Province was acquitted and released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence for murder after the supposedly murdered victim was found alive. Zhao had been forced through torture to plead guilty.

The draft amendment has also added articles to the law giving suspects held in custody more freedom to meet their defense attorney.

A legitimate defense lawyer has the right to meet his client in custody to ask for information and provide consultative services, and detention houses should arrange the meeting within 48 hours.

A defense lawyer's meeting with a suspect should not be monitored, the draft amendment said.

Chinese legal experts welcomed the draft amendment, calling it a great improvement in balancing crime fighting and protecting human rights.

"If approved, it will be a significant amendment in terms of civilization, humanity and scientific design within present legal frames, though there is still room for improvement," said Chen Weidong, a professor with Renmin University of China.

The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued two sets of regulations in May last year that lay out detailed procedures for invalidating the confessions of tortured suspects who could face the death penalty.

The draft amendment's new content has adopted many of the ideas of the two regulations, Chen said.

The draft also prohibits the practice of self-incrimination and a suspect's close relatives have the right to decide whether to appear in court as witnesses.

"Forcing suspects' spouses, parents or children to testify against him or her in court goes against maintaining smooth family relations," the draft said.

"This stipulation is in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also shares the principle of 'presumption of innocence' in legal theory," said Chen.

The Criminal Procedural Law was instituted in 1979 and was revised in 1996. The new draft amendment proposes more than 100 changes, accounting for more than half of the law's current articles.

"The draft follows the rules of distributing power among judiciary organs and strikes a balance between fighting crime and protecting human rights," said Wang Shangxin, an official with the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee.

"We try to make the law punish criminals promptly and precisely to safeguard civil and social interests, and to protect the suspect's or defendant's legitimate rights at the same time," he said.