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June 30, 2014

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Back to prison for officials who shouldn’t be out

CHINA has recalled 247 criminals to prison after they were found to have not met requirements for serving their sentences in detention houses or other outside institutions.

Among them are 18 former officials at or above the level of a deputy department head, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate revealed yesterday.

Some of those recalled were found to have offered bribes to be allowed to serve their sentences outside or had obtained the concession by other illegal means. The SPP said it uncovered 188 cases where criminals had been allowed to serve their sentences outside prison walls in an inspection carried out from March to the end of May.

It is investigating 30 cases concerning duty-related crimes, involving 40 officials in the judicial system.

During the inspection, the SPP found that a prison boss in east China’s Jiangsu Province had taken bribes worth more than 240,000 yuan (US$39,000) to help certain prisoners gain remissions of their sentences.

A police officer in southwest China’s Guizhou Province was found to have accepted 180,000 yuan from prisoners’ families to help gain them parole or have sentences commuted.

The recalls came after new rules tightening the granting of imprisonment remissions in April. The rules are aimed to prevent influential criminals from escaping punishment by using their money and power.

The new rules focus on criminals convicted of three types of crimes — abuse of power, organizing mafia-style groups and financial fraud — stipulating that a court hearing is necessary when these people apply for parole, to serve their sentences outside prison, or to have their sentences commuted.

The SPP said China had a total of 90,925 criminals of the three types by the end of May — 52,819 abuse of power, 12,507 mafia-style gang related crimes and 25,599 financial fraud.

Only 66,718 are serving sentence in prisons, while 23,967 are in community rehab centers and 240 in detention houses.

The SPP said it had also detected loopholes in supervision.

When some criminals apply for concessions due to serious illnesses, the courts do not have a standard for the assessment of some illnesses, the SPP said.

A former senior official sentenced to death with a reprieve had been bailed to allow him to get treatment. But when procurators reviewed his case he was taken back to prison.




 

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