DLM
04-14-2005, 10:06 AM
Court in China issues first ruling barring evidence gained through torture
CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - An appeals court has barred the use of evidence gained through torture in what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in China, a government website reported Thursday.
The ruling came as a man who said police coerced him into confessing to murder was freed after 11 years in prison in a case that has focused public attention on law enforcement abuses.
China outlawed torture in 1996, but activists and defence lawyers say unskilled police often abuse detainees to extract confessions.
The ruling by the Sichuan Provincial High Court said evidence obtained through torture, coercion or trickery would not be accepted as the basis of a charge. Its ruling was issued Wednesday and reported on the website of a newspaper run by the state prosecutor's office.
The report said it was the first time a Chinese appeals court has explicitly ruled out evidence obtained under duress.
Also Wednesday, former security guard She Xianglin was formally exonerated at a retrial following the reappearance of the wife he was accused of killing.
She says police deprived him of sleep for 10 days until he signed documents pleading guilty to murder.
"Justice has been done," She said, according to the Shanghai newspaper Youth Daily.
News of She's case has prompted rare discussion in China's state media of torture and other abuses by police.
Chinese judges already had the power to throw out cases where torture was suspected, but the Sichuan ruling would require them to do so if police were unable to reply to a defendant's torture allegations or refused to co-operate with investigators.
Human rights groups say many people are tortured to death each year in police custody, mostly common criminals but also political and religious dissidents. Police usually tell relatives the victims died of natural causes or committed suicide.
She's retrial was ordered this month after his wife, Zhang Zaiyu, returned to their hometown to visit the couple's daughter.
She was convicted following Zhang's disappearance in 1994 and the discovery of a decomposed female corpse in a reservoir. He was convicted and sentenced to death despite a lack of lack of DNA evidence or other proof that the body was that of his wife. His punishment was reduced on appeal to 15 years in prison.
She's lawyer, Zhang Chengmao, was quoted by official newspapers as saying he planned to ask for the equivalent of $1.5 million Cdn in compensation under Chinese law. A medical test found She suffers from double vision and back problems.
Newspaper reports said those involved in She's arrest, interrogation and conviction are under investigation.
CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - An appeals court has barred the use of evidence gained through torture in what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in China, a government website reported Thursday.
The ruling came as a man who said police coerced him into confessing to murder was freed after 11 years in prison in a case that has focused public attention on law enforcement abuses.
China outlawed torture in 1996, but activists and defence lawyers say unskilled police often abuse detainees to extract confessions.
The ruling by the Sichuan Provincial High Court said evidence obtained through torture, coercion or trickery would not be accepted as the basis of a charge. Its ruling was issued Wednesday and reported on the website of a newspaper run by the state prosecutor's office.
The report said it was the first time a Chinese appeals court has explicitly ruled out evidence obtained under duress.
Also Wednesday, former security guard She Xianglin was formally exonerated at a retrial following the reappearance of the wife he was accused of killing.
She says police deprived him of sleep for 10 days until he signed documents pleading guilty to murder.
"Justice has been done," She said, according to the Shanghai newspaper Youth Daily.
News of She's case has prompted rare discussion in China's state media of torture and other abuses by police.
Chinese judges already had the power to throw out cases where torture was suspected, but the Sichuan ruling would require them to do so if police were unable to reply to a defendant's torture allegations or refused to co-operate with investigators.
Human rights groups say many people are tortured to death each year in police custody, mostly common criminals but also political and religious dissidents. Police usually tell relatives the victims died of natural causes or committed suicide.
She's retrial was ordered this month after his wife, Zhang Zaiyu, returned to their hometown to visit the couple's daughter.
She was convicted following Zhang's disappearance in 1994 and the discovery of a decomposed female corpse in a reservoir. He was convicted and sentenced to death despite a lack of lack of DNA evidence or other proof that the body was that of his wife. His punishment was reduced on appeal to 15 years in prison.
She's lawyer, Zhang Chengmao, was quoted by official newspapers as saying he planned to ask for the equivalent of $1.5 million Cdn in compensation under Chinese law. A medical test found She suffers from double vision and back problems.
Newspaper reports said those involved in She's arrest, interrogation and conviction are under investigation.