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Questions Over Plan to Prevent Confession by Torture in China
Indonesian practitioners of Falung Gong act out a scene of Chinese police torturing people during a protest in Jakarta, 07 Oct. 2006. (Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images)
The torture of suspects to extract confessions is common in China, but the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate—the regime’s highest-level prosecution body—have recently said they intend to implement a pilot program encouraging criminal suspects to file complaints against police if they are tortured during interrogation, according to reports by major Chinese Internet portals and media this week.
Experts are concerned, however, that the move could be an empty gesture, since China has failed to comply with the provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Torture despite becoming a signatory in 1988.
Internet portals like Sohu and Sina.com published reports on a pilot program initiated at the Wuhu City Detention Center in Anhui Province. They stated that suspects are now encouraged to complain of police officers’ violations, instead of cases of torture being investigated after the interrogation has taken place.
An associate professor of law at Renmin University, Cheng Lei, told Southern Metropolis Weekly that past failure to prevent torture shows there is a big problem within the Chinese judicial system itself. He was also involved in the pilot program at Wuhu.
A Chinese criminal defense attorney, who would only be identified Mr. Li because he was addressing political matters, told The Epoch Times that these measures will not have far-reaching effects. He noted that even police assistants frequently beat people at the detention center. “If the judicial system is not independent, and the criminal procedure system does not work toward protecting human rights, then these small changes are only covering up for past mistakes.”
The Chinese regime’s system of law enforcement and punishment regularly attracts international criticism for its arbitrariness, violence, and what many victims and advocates say is widespread injustice, and oftentimes cruelty. In the 2011 Human Rights Report released by the U.S. Department of State, China was named as one of the countries with the worst human rights record.
Read the original Chinese article.
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2012-08-17 10:03:07
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