Judicial system receives fewer complaints
By Jiao Xiaoyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 05:33

Complaints over China's judicial system took a rare drop last year as judicial workers fought harder on cases and showed more care for human rights, Chief Justice Xiao Yang reported to the legislative session on Saturday.

Courts across the country received 3,995,244 letters, visits and calls of complaint in 2005 a 5.33 per cent decline year-on-year, with 435,547 of them against the perceived misconduct of judges, Xiao said in his work report to the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC) session.

"The number of complaints related to the court, which was on the rise for years, began to drop for the first time last year," said Xiao, chief justice and president of the Supreme People's Court. He attributed the change to "unswerving efforts" the courts across the country have been making.

Local courts in China handled 683,997 criminal cases and convicted 844,717 criminals in 2005, up 6.17 per cent and 10 per cent respectively year-on-year.

Some 131,869 criminals were given more than five years in jail, life imprisonment or capital punishment for offences of violence such as homicide, arson, rape, kidnap, arson and organizing triads.

While getting tougher on crimes, China's courts also strengthened the protection of human rights in criminal cases to make sure the verdicts can "stand the test of time," said Xiao.

Local courts declared 2,162 defendants innocent last year, and offered counsels to 117,407 defendants who deserved legal aid according to the law.

Local courts also heard 4,360,184 civil cases last year, involving 653 billion yuan (US$81 billion) of disputed subjects.

But Xiao admitted there remained problems in the judicial work in some places, such as lack of professionalism that resulted in improper rulings, poor implementation, and even corruption.

Several shocking cases of misjudgements were exposed last year, which prompted appeals for judicial reform. In one example, Nie Shubin, a young farmer in North China's Hebei Province, was executed in 1994 after being convicted of raping and murdering a local woman. Early last year, however, a rape-and-murder suspect apprehended by police confessed he had committed the crime.

Last year, 378 judges were found guilty of abuses of power, and 66 received criminal penalties, according to Xiao. But the numbers were 18 per cent and 44.07 per cent lower than the previous year, he noted.

Xiao promised the Supreme Court will further improve performance in litigation this year and push forward judicial reform. As of July 1, all criminal cases that may lead to a death sentence will be heard in open court in the second instance, ending the practice of documentary review that many courts have used to handle the second instances of death penalty cases, said Xiao.

Job-related crimes the focus

In another report by Procurator-General Jia Chunwang of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Chinese prosecutors investigated 2,799 government officials above the county level, including 196 at prefecture level and eight at provincial and ministerial level in 2005.

In addition, 9,117 State company executives were probed for misappropriating or embezzling company assets.

Investigations of job-related crimes of high-level officials, "profitable" government sections, monopoly industries and State-owned companies became a focal point of procurators work in 2005, Jia reported to NPC deputies on Saturday.

"Job-related crimes have been rampant in some industries and government sections over the past years, but the amount of money involved has risen, crimes are committed more cunningly and more officials are absconding with large sums of public funds," said Jia.

In 2005, 703 fugitive government officials who were suspected of job-related crimes were seized, 14.5 per cent more than the previous year; and 7.4 billion yuan (US$924 million) of illicit money was confiscated, 62.9 per cent more than 2004, according to Jia.

Prosecutors also probed 41,449 government employees in 2005 on suspicion of corruption and dereliction of duty, bringing 30,205 of them to court, Jia said.

(China Daily 03/13/2006 page2)