The National People's Congress (NPC) is mulling amending the Criminal
Procedure Law later this year to take the country's legal system closer to
international practice.
The amendment, aimed at adapting to the UN
Convention against Corruption, is part of China's efforts to bring to justice a
large number of corrupt officials who have fled overseas.
Wang
Zhenchuan, deputy procurator general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said
the Standing Committee of the NPC, the country's top legislature, is scheduled
to take up the amendment in October.
The amendment may include the
burden of providing evidence, system of criminal trials by default, as well as
cooperation between Chinese and foreign judicial organs.
With the
amendment, procuratorate departments can prosecute an official for possessing
property disproportionate to his income without giving evidence but by reasoning from
existing proof.
Now Chinese courts cannot raise a criminal or civil
action in the absence of a suspect. So they cannot do anything to punish those
who have fled abroad except negotiate with those nations for their extradition.
"Despite some differences,
the formulation or revision of Chinese domestic laws will follow the UN
convention because China is a signatory country," Wang said.
He conceded
the differences between Chinese laws and the UN convention have made it
difficult for China to seek international cooperation to extradite corrupt
officials.
Chinese laws, for example, say bribery crimes must include
material enrichment, while the convention stipulates "all unlawful profits, not
necessarily material properties, and even not necessarily acquirements in real
sense but maybe merely promises, all should be considered as briberies".
In terms of penalty, the Chinese laws stipulate heavier punishments than
the overseas ones. A person found guilty of taking a bribe of 100,000 yuan
($13,233) can be jailed for 10 years or more in China, compared to a maximum of
seven to eight years in other countries.
Some countries, especially in
the West, have reportedly rejected China's demand to extradite corrupt officials
because Beijing can hand down the capital punishment for economic crimes.
About 800 suspects wanted for embezzling a cumulative 70 billion yuan ($9.2
billion) are living abroad, Xinhua News Agency reported earlier. Few of them
have been extradited. China signed the UN document in
December 2003, and the NPC ratified it unanimously in October 2005.
Vocabulary:
disproportionate：不成比例的；不相稱的
extradition：引渡（嫌犯或罪犯）
embezzle：盜用；挪用
(China Daily 07/26/2007 page 1)
（英語點津 Linda 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from
Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong
and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, producing current affairs shows and
documentaries.
