China lists, names five for judicial intervention

BEIJING - The names of five officials and judicial personnel were made public on Friday as they had interfered in judicial cases.

They were either removed from their posts or given sanctions including a demerit mark on their records, according to a press release issued by the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

This was the first time new regulations have been enforced since they were enacted in March.

In one case, Chen Hai'ou, a former Beijing Higher People's Court presiding judge, from March to June this year had, on several occasions, asked court personnel to grant the requests of people he was associated with.

Chen was given a warning and removed from his post, according to the press release.

In another case, Ding Weihe, former deputy chief of the local legislature in Xuzhou city in East China's Jiangsu province, who at the time was Party chief of Xuzhou's Jiawang district, instructed a local agency to be lenient in the sentencing of a head of a local company who was facing traffic accident charges in September 2010.

Ding was put under investigation for "suspected disciplinary and legal violations" by the local CPC discipline agency in March 2014.

Interference in judicial activities is often seen in corruption and miscarriages of justice in the judicial system.

According to the rules enacted in March, judicial personnel must keep detailed records of interference, no matter who is involved or how. Violators whose interference leads to a miscarriage of justice could face criminal proceedings.

In Friday's press release, the commission vowed to step up supervision and punish violators, as a way to be sure officials and judicial personnel "do not, or dare, to meddle in judicial cases."