An influential Chinese weekly news magazine reported yesterday that torture was still routinely used by police and investigating prosecutors to extract confessions from suspects.
"The extraction of confessions through torture has in no way been thoroughly brought under control and has caused death and injuries," a four-page report in the Outlook Weekly said.
An independent study by China's parliament carried out in six cities and provinces between 1997 and 1999 discovered 221 cases of extracted confessions which resulted in the deaths of 21 criminal suspects, the report said.
"Those who extract confessions through torture do not believe they are accumulating false evidence or creating unjust cases, they believe their judgement is correct," it said.
The magazine said other major reasons behind the use of torture were a lack of presumption of innocence in China's legal system and an over-dependence on confessions as prime evidence in trials.
In order to curb the practice, a criminal suspect should be given the right to remain silent, interrogations should all be recorded, lawyers should be present during interrogation and suspects should be allowed the right to give direct testimony in the court room, it said.
The article appeared as China's top law enforcement official Luo Gan urged stronger implementation of a three month-old "strike hard" crackdown on crime that has already resulted in at least 1,300 executions.
"For those big and heinous crimes that occur during the `strike hard' period, we must investigate and solve the cases faster, and try and sentence [the criminals] faster," the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.
Diplomats in Beijing have counted around 1,300 executions in official media reports alone since President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) launched the anti-crime drive in early April, while thousands of criminal suspects have also be rounded up and charged.
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