CHINA'S Ministry of Public Security has issued a new regulation to bring police activities under stricter control, apparently aimed at ending the use of torture and threats to extract confessions, state press reported today.
The new regulations, which go into force on January 1, 2004, also decree that police officers should respect the dignity of suspects when conducting investigations, Xinhua news agency said.
Police were also ordered to end on-the-spot fines in prostitution cases and to stop the administrative detention of people suffering from infectious diseases.
Those being fined by police could also refuse to pay if the police refused to issue a receipt for the fine, it said.
Interrogation of criminal suspects would be limited to 12 hours at a time, but 24-hour interrogations would be allowed if special permission is granted.
Torture is widely used by China's police and judicial officials in extracting confessions, a practice that has been linked to high conviction rates in Chinese judicial proceedings, rights groups have said.
In June, Chinese judges were warned they will lose their jobs or be prosecuted if they continued to use torture to extract confessions.
The warning, which came along with an order not to conceal or make up evidence, was part of a 13-item list of rules that judges must abide by if they want to keep their posts.
The list, issued by the Supreme People's Court, also stresses the need to abstain from taking bribes, accepting gifts or engaging in business for profit.
China launched a nationwide effort to reduce corruption in the legal system in the late 1990s, but the release of the new rules suggest that it was not uniformly successful.
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7217484%255E1702,00.html
The new regulations, which go into force on January 1, 2004, also decree that police officers should respect the dignity of suspects when conducting investigations, Xinhua news agency said.
Police were also ordered to end on-the-spot fines in prostitution cases and to stop the administrative detention of people suffering from infectious diseases.
Those being fined by police could also refuse to pay if the police refused to issue a receipt for the fine, it said.
Interrogation of criminal suspects would be limited to 12 hours at a time, but 24-hour interrogations would be allowed if special permission is granted.
Torture is widely used by China's police and judicial officials in extracting confessions, a practice that has been linked to high conviction rates in Chinese judicial proceedings, rights groups have said.
In June, Chinese judges were warned they will lose their jobs or be prosecuted if they continued to use torture to extract confessions.
The warning, which came along with an order not to conceal or make up evidence, was part of a 13-item list of rules that judges must abide by if they want to keep their posts.
The list, issued by the Supreme People's Court, also stresses the need to abstain from taking bribes, accepting gifts or engaging in business for profit.
China launched a nationwide effort to reduce corruption in the legal system in the late 1990s, but the release of the new rules suggest that it was not uniformly successful.
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7217484%255E1702,00.html
