An end to torture confessions?

I suppose it's fair enough that my blog is banned in China.  It's not my reporting though....

FT News, Education

Stop torturing suspects to getconfessions, says prosecutor

Bill Savadove in Shanghai

399 words

21 November 2006

South China Morning Post

1

English

(c) 2006 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, Hong Kong. All rights reserved.

A top justice official has called on mainland police to stop using torture to extract confessions - the biggest cause of wrongful verdicts - acknowledging a problem widely criticised by foreign human rights groups.

"Nearly every wrongful verdict in recent years relates to illegal interrogation," Wang Zhenchuan , a deputy procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, told a seminar in Sanya , Hainan province at the weekend. He did not define what is illegal under Chinese law, but said the government needed to do more to protect the rights of suspects by curbing torture, Xinhua said yesterday.

The mainland saw at least 30 cases annually with wrongful verdicts due to confessions extracted by torture or other coercive tactics, but the true number could be even higher, Mr Wang said. Torture methods cited by rights experts included shocks from electric batons, cigarette burns, submersion in pits of water or sewage and exposure to conditions of extreme heat or cold.

China previously denied accusations by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, following his visit to the mainland in December last year, that torture was still widely practised in the country.

"Torture is on the decline but it is still widespread," Mr Nowak said at the time.

In March, following the release of a more comprehensive report, Mr Nowak said a major problem of China's justice system was that it was largely based on obtaining confessions, especially for suspects in rural areas and for political prisoners.

"The major reason for torture and ill-treatment remains the old system, with a lot of pressure on the police to extract confessions. My particular concern is the strong interest of the system that people finally admit guilt," he said.

The mainland has launched a political campaign to halt such practices. Under regulations issued in March, interrogations in major cases, such as murder and gang-related crime, must be both video- and audio-taped.

Another procuratorial official, Chen Lianfu, head of the office with the task of fighting malfeasance, was quoted by Xinhua, saying the government needs to better enforce rules to curb illegal practices in interrogation.

He Jiahong , president of the law school at Renmin University, said China should study other countries to help develop its legal system in this regard.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse