SWB
FE/1224 C1/11
cases, including cases of non-public trial in accordance with law, should be pronounced publicly.
During the judicial process the people's court makes it a point to collect the evidence as comprehensively as possible according to legal procedure. With no other evidence except the confession of the accused as a basis, the accused cannot be pronounced guilty or sentenced; without the confession of the accused but with ample and reliable evidence, the accused can be pronounced guilty and sentenced.
The accused has the right to defence. According to the Law of Criminal Procedure, the accused, besides exercising his right to defend himself, can also entrust a lawyer, or close relatives, or other citizens to take up the defence on his behalf. When the public prosecutor institutes a case before the court, if the accused does not entrust his defence to a lawyer, the people's court can appoint one for him. During the trial, the accused has the right to terminate a lawyer's action in his defence and entrust another to take it up. After the people's court decides to hear a case, a duplicate copy of the indictment should be made available to the accused at least seven days before the opening session of the court in order that he may learn what crime or crimes he is being prosecuted for and the reasons why he is being prosecuted, and that he has enough time to prepare his defence and get in touch with his lawyer. During the prosecution, the people's court should strictly comply with the regulations of the Constitution and the Law of Criminal Procedure, and earnestly guarantee the right of the accused to defence.
The accused has the right to appeal to a higher court and the right of petition. In deciding cases the Chinese courts follow the system whereby the court of second instance is the court of last instance. According to law, if a party refuses to accept the judgement and ruling of the first trial, he may appeal to a higher people's court; if he remains unconvinced by the judgement and ruling which are legal in effect, he may petition to people's courts or procuratorial organs. Appealing to a higher court will not increase the punishment.
China's Criminal Law has special regulations on juvenile crime and criminal responsibility. Those who have reached the age of 14 but not of 16 should be responsible for crimes of murder, serious injury, robbery, arson, hardened thievery and other felonies against public order; those who have reached the age of 14 but not of 18 should receive lenient punishment or mitigated punishment if they commit crimes; as for those who are exempt from punishment because they have not reached the age of 16, their parents or guardians should be ordered to subject them to discipline, and if necessary the government can take them away for custody and education.
Lawsuit procedures and judicial activities are strictly supervised as to their legality. In 1990, China's procuratorial organs put forward suggestions for the correction of illegal practice in 3,200 instances, thereby effectively guaranteeing citizens' legal rights and interests in lawsuits and judicial activities.
China, like most countries in the world, maintains capital punishment, but imposes very stringent restrictive regulations en the use of this extreme measure. China's Criminal I aw states. "Capital punishment is applied only to criminals who are guilty of the most heinous crimes." It also provides that
8 Nov 91
capital punishment is not applied to criminals who have not reached the age of 18 when they commit crimes or to women who are pregnant when they are on trial. China's Law of Criminal Procedure provides for a special review procedure in cases of capital punishment. That is, the judgement in cases of capital punishment, except for those made by the Supreme People's Court according to law, should be reported to the Supreme People's Court or to a high people's court authorized by it after the second, or final, instance; only after all the facts, evidence, convictions, sentences and trial procedures are comprehensively investigated and checked and approved can the judgement take legal effect. After the examination and approval, if a lower people's court finds that there may be mistakes in a judgement, it should stop enforcement of the punishment and immediately report to a higher people's court with the authority of examination and approval, or to the Supreme People's Court, in order that a ruling may be made by it.
China's law also provides a system allowing a two-year reprieve in carrying out a death sentence. That is, in cases where criminals should receive the death penalty but the sentence need not be carried out at once, capital punishment can be announced with a two-year reprieve and reform through forced labour, in order to observe the offender's behaviour. If the offender sincerely repents and mends his ways, after the two-year reprieve expires, the punishment can be reduced to life imprisonment; if a criminal really repents, mends his ways and performs meritorious services after the two-year suspension expires, his punishment can be reduced to a set term of imprisonment from 15 years to 20 years. Practice has shown that most of the criminals who are given the death penalty with reprieve have had their punishment reduced to life imprisonment or a set term of imprisonment, after expiration of the two-year reprieve. The system of announcing the death sentence with a two-year reprieve and forced labour, as provided in China's Criminal Law, is an original creation in the application of capital punishment. It is an effective system by which strict control is exercised over the use of capital punishment in China.
4. No "Political Prisoners” in China
In China, ideas alone, in the absence of action which violates the criminal law, do not constitute a crime; nobody will be sentenced to punishment merely because he holds dissenting political views. So-called political prisoners do not exist in China. In Chinese criminal law "counter-revolutionary crime" refers to crime which endangers state security, i.e., criminal acts which are not only committed with the purpose of overthrowing state power and the socialist system, but which are also listed in Articles 91-102 of the Criminal Law as criminal acts, such as those carried out in conspiring to overthrow the government or splitting the country, those carried out in gathering a crowd in armed rebellion, and espionage activities. These kinds of criminal acts that endanger state security are punishable in any country. In 1980, in handling the case of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter- revolutionary cliques, the special court of the Supreme People's Court strictly implemented this principle by prosecuting members of the cliques according to law for their criminal acts while leaving alone matters concerning the political line.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.