上访户99%有精神问题? 北大孙东东言论遭炮轰致歉
Xinhua News, 2009-04-07
Responding to internet and street protests denouncing him, Sun Dongdong, head of Beijing University's forensics department, apologized for and partially retracted his earlier statements that 99% of “habitual petitioners” have “paranoid-type mental disorders.” He had also justified the forced hospitalization of such petitioners, noting that“they disturb social order” and “the problems they report have actually all been solved.” Sun's remarks and the resultant protests—which caught the attention of the Western media (Wall Street Journal article)—have made clear that “in addition to administrative abuses of power, the random and careless determination of mental illness by experts like Sun” is also responsible for the unjust hospitalization of petitioners on the pretense of mental illness.
2009-04-08
Lawyer's Editorial Exposes Irresponsibility of Prosecutors in Guizhou Child Rape Case
律师看法：习水检察院把强奸变嫖幼是放纵
Xinhua News, 2009-04-07
In a high profile forced-prostitution and rape case involving several local government cadres, Xishui (Guizhou Province) prosecutors have charged the officials with “whoring with young girls,” not rape, noting that “whoring with young girls” carries a higher minimum sentence (5 years) than rape (3 years). Beijing attorney Liu Changsong strongly disagrees, pointing out that prosecutors failed to explain that the maximum sentences for rape (life imprisonment or death) are substantially more severe than “whoring with young girls” (15 years). Liu further argues that the law stipulates “whoever has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 14 (of whom there were three in this case) shall be deemed to have committed rape and shall be given a heavier punishment.” The real reason behind the lesser charges, Liu speculates, is “judicial officials latent beliefs” about protecting the defendants' face.
Xinhua News, 2009-04-07
In a high profile forced-prostitution and rape case involving several local government cadres, Xishui (Guizhou Province) prosecutors have charged the officials with “whoring with young girls,” not rape, noting that “whoring with young girls” carries a higher minimum sentence (5 years) than rape (3 years). Beijing attorney Liu Changsong strongly disagrees, pointing out that prosecutors failed to explain that the maximum sentences for rape (life imprisonment or death) are substantially more severe than “whoring with young girls” (15 years). Liu further argues that the law stipulates “whoever has sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 14 (of whom there were three in this case) shall be deemed to have committed rape and shall be given a heavier punishment.” The real reason behind the lesser charges, Liu speculates, is “judicial officials latent beliefs” about protecting the defendants' face.
Convicted Inmates to Receive Legal Aid
Beijing Evening News, 2009-04-08
Beijing's Xuanwu District Legal Aid Center has signed an agreement with the Beijing Qinghe Prison Sub-bureau to give “one-on-one” legal aid to incarcerated inmates in the sub-bureau's 5 prisons. At a recent group consultation session, lawyers answered prisoner's legal questions about household registration (hukou), removal from and compensation for destroyed housing, inheritance, reduced sentencing and early release. Legal aid lawyers also distributed pamphlets addressing prisoner's common legal concerns, as well as their individual rights. Prison officials also hope the lawyers' visits and consultations can educate prison guards and other police about the law.
Case Highlights “Weak Supervision” of “Special Group”—Defendants w/ HIV/AIDS
揭开特殊人群监管软肋
Xinhua News, 2009-04-08
After damaging a Shenyang (Liaodong Province) police station and threatening officers with a knife taken from the station's kitchen, repeat offender, drug addict and HIV/AIDS patient Guan Lihong was allowed to walk free with the knife and injure the same victim he had been taken to the station for hurting. The next day Guan threatened and attempted to hurt another person, Qiu Fusheng, involved in the original altercation. Qiu wrestled the knife from Guan and stabbed him to death. He has been charged with intentional homicide but has pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense. The case highlights four “bottlenecks” judicial organs face in supervising and detaining defendants with HIV/AIDS: police fear of become infected due to a lack of effective protection procedures; a severe shortage of detention centers capable of safely and “sanitarily” holding HIV/AIDS defendants; insufficient medicine and medical equipment for treating infected defendants while in detention; gaping legal loopholes restricting police and court powers, for example, China's national detention center regulations stipulate that centers “should not accept criminals with highly infectious diseases.”
Xinhua News, 2009-04-08
After damaging a Shenyang (Liaodong Province) police station and threatening officers with a knife taken from the station's kitchen, repeat offender, drug addict and HIV/AIDS patient Guan Lihong was allowed to walk free with the knife and injure the same victim he had been taken to the station for hurting. The next day Guan threatened and attempted to hurt another person, Qiu Fusheng, involved in the original altercation. Qiu wrestled the knife from Guan and stabbed him to death. He has been charged with intentional homicide but has pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense. The case highlights four “bottlenecks” judicial organs face in supervising and detaining defendants with HIV/AIDS: police fear of become infected due to a lack of effective protection procedures; a severe shortage of detention centers capable of safely and “sanitarily” holding HIV/AIDS defendants; insufficient medicine and medical equipment for treating infected defendants while in detention; gaping legal loopholes restricting police and court powers, for example, China's national detention center regulations stipulate that centers “should not accept criminals with highly infectious diseases.”
2009-04-06
Local Fuzhou Court Explores People's Assessor System
Xinhua News, 2009-04-05
In addition to soliciting applications from “talented people in all professional fields” to serve in the local People's Assessor (Jury) System—53 out of 637 applicants have been selected since 2006—the Gulou District Court in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, has released provisional regulations detailing the rights and obligations of assessor. Those rights include the “independent exercise of voting rights,” “right to request a case be handed on to a judicial committee for discussion,” and the “right for juror's dissenting opinions in collegiate bench-decided cases to be included in court notes.”
2009-04-03
Xinjiang Legal Aid Achieves “No Crack Uncovered”
新疆法律援助机构实现“无缝覆盖”
Xinhua News, 2009-04-02
According to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Legal Aid Center, the XUAR has 110 legal aid centers, one for every county-level administrative region and above, and 1,371 legal aid “stations” in towns, villages and city neighborhoods. To solve funding problems, the center successfully lobbied Beijing for 1.6 million yuan in 2008 and included 85 legal aid centers and stations in local government budgets, generating a total 2008 legal aid budget of 4.45 million yuan, a 131% increase over the previous year. 8,231 cases received legal assistance, a 28.3% increase over 2007, and 40,281 consultations were conducted, a 7.8% increase.
Xinhua News, 2009-04-02
According to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Legal Aid Center, the XUAR has 110 legal aid centers, one for every county-level administrative region and above, and 1,371 legal aid “stations” in towns, villages and city neighborhoods. To solve funding problems, the center successfully lobbied Beijing for 1.6 million yuan in 2008 and included 85 legal aid centers and stations in local government budgets, generating a total 2008 legal aid budget of 4.45 million yuan, a 131% increase over the previous year. 8,231 cases received legal assistance, a 28.3% increase over 2007, and 40,281 consultations were conducted, a 7.8% increase.
Prison and Detention Center Police to Undergo “Education and Rectification Campaign”
公安部：汲取监所非正常死亡事件教训 开展教育整顿
Xinhua News, 2009-04-02
From 1 April to the end of June, the public security bureau-administered detention center and prison system will conduct a “be conscientious and meticulous in your work; be loyal to your duty” campaign in response to public outrage over “unnatural deaths” in China's prisons. The campaign will tackle problems of “special-privileges mentalities, dim legal consciousness, and weak conceptions of human rights” among prison officers. Local public security bureaus are also to report to Party committees and local governments on issues of force strength, funding difficulties and insufficient facilities and equipment.
Xinhua News, 2009-04-02
From 1 April to the end of June, the public security bureau-administered detention center and prison system will conduct a “be conscientious and meticulous in your work; be loyal to your duty” campaign in response to public outrage over “unnatural deaths” in China's prisons. The campaign will tackle problems of “special-privileges mentalities, dim legal consciousness, and weak conceptions of human rights” among prison officers. Local public security bureaus are also to report to Party committees and local governments on issues of force strength, funding difficulties and insufficient facilities and equipment.
Urgent Need for Revised State Secrets Law
Caijing Online, 2009-04-02
In response to the State Council Standing Committee's 1 April meeting on the draft revision of the State Secrets Law, Caijing reviews the many reasons why revision is urgently needed: The current 1988 law continues the “Chinese traditional system” of secrecy as an administrative principle and contradicts new “sunshine policies” on the release of government information. Bureaucratic agents take advantage of the current law's lack of explicit standards concerning what constitutes “state secrets” to hide their own mistakes and corruption. The law also prevents defendants and their lawyers from accessing crucial evidence declared state secrets by police or prosecutors in criminal trials, as a recent case demonstrates
2009-04-01
Hangzhou Public Security Bureau Sued over Administrative Punishment
Xinhua News, 2009-04-01
In a case highlighting contradictions in China's overlapping criminal justice systems, a Lishui (Zhenjiang Province) civil servant has sued a Hangzhou police station, requesting that the station invalidate its administrative punishment decision against him and publicly apologize. The man was detained by police during a vice operation at a massage parlor and accused of purchasing sexual services. He claims he was then induced to sign a confession with the promise he would be immediately released with only a 500 yuan fine. Instead, police sentenced the man to10 days of administrative detention without a trial. After release, the Lishui Communist Party's Discipline and Inspection Committee took action against him. Court arguments in the civil suit focused on the police's lack of material evidence (no “condom or whoring money”) and the courtroom and written testimony of the discovering officer and alleged prostitute. The court has yet to release a judgement.
4 Year Nation-wide Prosecutor Training Plan Unveiled
最高检：四年内完成检察机关全员正规化培训
Southern Weekend, 2009-03-31
The Supreme People's Procuratorate's newly-released training plan calls for all prosecutors to undergo standardized education aimed at “providing the scientific development of prosecutorial work with strong political thought guarantees, talent guarantees and intellectual support.” Beginning this year, the Supreme Procuratorate will hold 15 to 20 national-level training sessions for roughly 2,000 cadres a year, while each province is expected to train one-fourth of its prosecution staff every year. Major goals of the training include cultivating 200 “prosecutorial work experts” and improving education and training in Western areas and at the grassroots level.
Southern Weekend, 2009-03-31
The Supreme People's Procuratorate's newly-released training plan calls for all prosecutors to undergo standardized education aimed at “providing the scientific development of prosecutorial work with strong political thought guarantees, talent guarantees and intellectual support.” Beginning this year, the Supreme Procuratorate will hold 15 to 20 national-level training sessions for roughly 2,000 cadres a year, while each province is expected to train one-fourth of its prosecution staff every year. Major goals of the training include cultivating 200 “prosecutorial work experts” and improving education and training in Western areas and at the grassroots level.
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