Xinhua News, 2009-04-14
Beginning in 2001, the Fushan (Guangzhou Province) Legal Aid Office has sent local lawyers to the municipal jail every month to offer free legal aid to inmates. As the first legal aid center in China to help convicted prisoners, the office has consulted with 1,273 inmates and helped them resolve legal problems involving wages and overtime pay in arrears, property mortgages, the distribution of farm land.
Southern Weekend, 2009-04-13
The State Council Public Information Office released China's first ever “National Human Rights Action Plan 2009-2010,” outlining broad government goals for improving and guaranteeing “human rights.” The plan includes spurring urban employment and transferring agricultural workers into other industries, expanding health care coverage to over 90% of the population, improving education—with the specific goal of decreasing youth illiteracy to below 4%y—and environmental recycling, and making public an accurate list of the dead and missing from last year's Sichuan earthquake. In criminal justice matters, it calls for increased diligence in stopping police torture, illegal detention and prison violence, as well as improving death sentence reviews and making trial and court procedures completely public.
Southern Weekend, 2009-04-13
In a case that garnered national attention, the Honghezhou (Yunnan Provice) Intermediate Court found police officer Ji Zhongchun guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced him to death. Ji had confessed to shooting Pan Jun three times with his police-issued pistol after the two became involved in an altercation following a minor traffic accident. The incident happened on 13 February 2009, after Ji—who was off duty at the time—had been driving while intoxicated. Courtroom arguments centered on whether Pan was partially at fault (the court ruled he was but his actions in no way justified Ji's reaction) and whether Ji had voluntarily surrendered to police (prosecutors argued he had, but the court ruled he had not). After the sentencing, Ji said he would appeal based on the court's failure to recognize his surrender.
Caijing Online, 2009-04-11
Shenzhen lawyer, Liu Yao, was in court again for a rehearing of his trial of second instance in Heyuan, Guangdong Province. Liu was originally convicted of “intentionally destroying property” and sentenced to four years in prison for his role in defending farmers from his village against an illegal land appropriation by a hydroelectric company—he had helped lead protests that resulted in damaged equipment at the construction site. At an earlier retrial, the court reduced Liu's sentence to two years based on a revised damage assessment. Court arguments at yesterday's hearing focused on another previously-unreleased “on-site” assessment recently issued by local police and challenged by Liu's lawyer, who questioned why the highly-detailed assessment had not been presented at earlier hearings and suggested police had partially fabricated it.
Xinhua News, 2009-04-10
The presiding judge of the Henan Supreme Court's First Criminal Court, Pan Jialing, welcomed the presence of eight “National People's Congress deputies, CPPCC members, cadres and representatives of the masses” for the court's second hearing and review of a death penalty. He explained that as People's Assessors (jurors) they were “well versed in local circumstances and had the right to speak about whether the criminal should be sentenced to death. Their advice . . . will guarantee that death sentences have the optimal legal and social impacts.” Pan also said he believes “assessors” [the same Chinese term is used to translate “jury”] should instead be called “reviewers” to more accurately reflect their dual functions of “supervising judge's words, deeds, demeanor and sentencing work-style, in addition to reflecting public sentiment.”
Xinhua News, 2009-04-10
Beginning in April, lawyers from over 600 law firms throughout Henan will offer free legal consultations and spread legal knowledge on the first Sunday of every month at 1,000 legal aid stations as part of the province's “lawyers entering villages and neighborhoods” campaign. The lawyers' participation will “strengthen their sense of social responsibility and initiative,”says a local official. The provincial Ministry of Justice Office is also planning partly to base its yearly evaluations and reviews of law firms on their participation and performance in the monthly clinics.
Xinhua News, 2009-04-10
The Henan Province Ministry of Justice Office announced the opening of a province-wide legal consultation phone line staffed by members of Henan's 177 legal aid centers at the provincial, city and county level. Officials hope the hotline, which will be funded entirely by the provincial Ministry of Justice Office, will raise the overall level of service and capabilities of the legal aid centers, especially at the county level and below.
Xinhua News, 2009-04-09
The Kashgar Area (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) Intermediate Court held a “sentencing meeting” outdoors on the grounds of the local sports complex to announce the Supreme People's Court's final approval of capital sentences for two Uighur men convicted in the 8 August, 2008 attack on police in Kashgar. The men were then led to an execution ground and the sentences implemented. A related article describes the attack, which left 17 people dead and 12 injured, as an attempt to “destroy the smooth opening of the Beijing Olympic Games and create an evil influence in the world.”
Xinhua News, 2009-04-09
The Lhasa (Tibetan Autonomous Region) Intermediate Court has found five defendants guilty of arson in three separate cases related to the March 2008 “3•14” protests and riots in Lhasa. Each case involved the burning of stores where the primary defendant was allegedly “fully aware” the shop owners and employers were hiding on the second floor and at least one person died, in one case five died. A spokesman for the court explained that the “crimes were extremely serious and without executing the criminals, public anger can not be appeased.”
Caijing Online, 2009-04-09
Based on new 2008 average wage figures released by the State Statistics Bureau, the Supreme People's Court increased state compensation standards for cases involving “violations of citizens' personal freedoms”due to the “illegal exercise of authority” by state organs or their employees. The daily compensation amount increased by 12.68RMB to 111.99RMB and the annual amount to 22,229RMB. Beijing University professor Jiang Mingan noted that the standards still fail to compensate victims for loss of income but instead only compensate for loss of freedom.
