Over 90 percent of victims in criminal cases received no judicial compensation due to the accused often being poor and a lack of any official assistance system, revealed a report by China Legal Publicity, an official Ministry of Justice website on June 14, 2007. Law experts have called on central authorities to pick up the slack and pay out the money owed to these victims.

The report found woeful that a lack of enforcement of civil compensation to criminal case victims remained a problem for China's courts, the report said.

Last week, the Beijing Evening Post quoted judicial sources as saying that "some 80 percent victims in criminal cases have failed to get any compensation and they face an empty sentence."?

The newspaper also revealed that of the 2,300 criminal cases with civil compensation demand brought before the courts of Qingdao in the last 5 years, 80 percent of them had not resulted in the victim receiving payment owed.

The China Legal Publicity report also used stats from Beijing's Second Intermediate Court, revealing that last year it had ruled on average civil damage payouts 64,000 yuan (US$8,420) per case. Unfortunately, the victims of each such case had only received 23,300 yuan (US$3,066) compensation in fact.

Local judges have spoken out of the inability of most convicts to compensate victims. Furthermore, those accused that are wealthy flout the rule with impunity, confident that the courts do not have the man-power to ransack their belongings.

The program is beginning to take in Qingdao, Fuzhou and Beijing, with all these cities laying down public funds aside to go specially to the victims of criminal cases. Prior to this trend, too much attention was given to the criminal, tending to let people momentarily forget the victim.

Ma Kechang, a criminal law professor from Wuhan University, advocates a national judicial assistance system to victims of criminal cases.

"To offer certain financial assistance to the victims and help resolve their life difficulties is a move which will showcase respect of human rights," Ma said.

As early as this March at the annual session of the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC), lawmakers pressed for a new official aid system to better safeguard victims’ rights.

The lack of protection of victims' rights has sparked a public outcry in China, particularly after a man went on an axe-murdering rampage killing ten. Qiu Xinghua was arrested and executed but his family was poor and the victims' families were never compensated, although five families withdrew their claims after hearing of Qiu's financial situation.

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, June 15, 2007)