Court sorry for 19 wrongful convictions
Print Edition
A court in Anhui Province has publicly apologized to 19 people it wrongfully convicted of financial crimes.
The apology from the People’s High Court in the east China province appeared in a local newspaper. The court said it wished to help restore the reputations of the individuals, all of whom were imprisoned in 2012 on charges of illegal fundraising.
They were accused in a single case involving China’s so-called grey economy, which lends money to business ventures too small to obtain loans from large state banks. The court said a review of the case revealed the convictions were wrongful, but didn’t explain why.
The convictions of the 19 defendants were overturned as well as the original indictments against them.
Wrongful convictions, including those resulting in the death penalty, are not unusual because of reliance on confessions rather than evidence, and pressure to solve homicides and other major cases.
Some cases have been overturned with restitution paid, but courts have hardly ever apologized.
In the Anhui case, the apology should be seen as a sign of progress in how the judicial system deals with its mistakes, said Gu Chengliang, a law professor at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University.
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