China's chief judge and chief procurator said Saturday that the country's court and prosecuting systems dealt seriously with corruption cases involving judges and prosecutors in the past year.
Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), said in his report on the court's work to the on-going National People's Congress (NPC) session that 34 judges across the country were investigated and found to have breached rules and regulations in the year.
With the implementation of a withdrawal system for courts of the country, a total of 6,759 judges as parties to cases withdrew of their own accord, which played a positive role in preventing nepotism in the work of the judges, the chief judge said.
Also in 2000, 1,292 judges in the country were punished for violation of Party and administrative rules, and 46 others were prosecuted for violation of the law, according to Xiao.
Han Zhubin, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), said 494 rule-breaking prosecutors were investigated and punished in the past year, with 54 of them prosecuted.
In a work report to the NPC session, Han told the legislators that in the past year, 102 chief procurators and deputy chiefs in local procuratorates were also penalized for violation of Party and administrative disciplines and laws, and five provincial-level procurators-general were called to the SPP to make self-criticisms.
Under supervisory procedures, Han said, procuratorates at all levels urged the police to file for investigation 20,809 cases and requested the police to put right 14,349 cases which were not handled properly, involving 64,254 people.
According to Han, procurators challenged 3,798 criminal cases they believed to be incorrect, and challenged court verdicts for 16,944 civil and administrative cases.
The procuratorates also raised views on 9,318 cases for correction of irregularities concerning commutation, parole and temporary serving a sentence outside prison under surveillance, the procurator-general said.
He said graft and favoritism are usually found behind serious judicial injustice, and procuratorates at all levels had intensified investigation into such matters, taking it as a major means to strengthen supervision over lawsuits.
In 2000, procuratorates investigated 4,626 cases involving judicial workers who were suspected of abusing their power.
(Xinhua 03/10/2001)
