Top public prosecutors' office, the Supreme People's
Procuratorate, announced Tuesday that a new regulation has been
worked out to prevent the unlawful prolonged custody of criminal
suspects.
Zhang Zhongfang, a spokesperson for the Procuratorate, said that
by July 21, 359 unlawful prolonged detention cases had been
redressed. And eight supervision groups were then dispatched to 24
provinces to look for any possible new cases.
To date, another 16 cases of unlawful prolonged custody were
spotted again nationwide and all have been dealt with.
Zhang noted that in a bid to fundamentally eliminate unlawful
extended detention, a long-term supervision system on law
enforcement officials must be established.
The new regulation would require law enforcement officials to
take a more prudent attitude when arresting criminal suspects. And
if the criminal case could not be checked within the time limit of
custody, law enforcement officials must free the criminal suspect
or apply to extend the detention by strictly following the relevant
law and regulations.
The regulation also requires that law enforcement departments
conduct interrogation within 24 hours of arrest and should inform
the suspects of the cause of detention, and tell the dates of the
beginning and end of the detention to the suspect as well as his
relatives or work unit, so that if the custody is unlawfully
extended, relatives of the suspect could appeal.
According to the regulation, any law enforcement officers who
abuse their power and cause a criminal suspect's detention to be
illegally extended must bear disciplinary or criminal
responsibility.
Zhang said the regulation helps build a long-term supervisory
system which could protect the human rights of criminal suspects
and demonstrates that China's judicial body not only devotes itself
to cracking down on crime, but highly respects human rights.
It occurs sometimes that criminal suspects are held at detention
centers until the court makes its final verdict. This means that
the police, public prosecutors and judges could all illegally hold
a suspect in custody for longer than is allowed.
The legal period of custody of criminal suspects ranges from 14
days to six-and-a-half-months from arrest to trial, according to
China's Criminal Procedure Law.
As of last week, there were still more than 3,600 unlawfully
prolonged custody cases existing in the country's detention
centers, all of which are expected to be dealt with before the end
of this year, according to the sources of the Supreme People's
Procuratorate.
(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2003)