New rules designed to ensure fairness
Print Edition
ALL parole and early-release hearings involving officials imprisoned on graft charges must be open to the public, the Supreme People’s Court ruled yesterday.
The move is designed to prevent “judicial corruption” in such cases, the court said, adding that the problem of guilty people bribing judges in order to secure reduced sentences or release on parole had become “quite acute.”
Therefore, all such hearings must be conducted in an open and transparent way to prevent underhand methods being used to influence the decision-making process, the court said. It added that they should be open to the public and members of parliament or other well-regarded people.
The ruling applies to all cases involving corrupt officials and those involved in organized or financial crime.
The public scrutiny will also help to prevent convicted criminals “using their personal influence or social connections” to get out of prison earlier than they should, the court said.
“Making announcements to the public will have the important effect of oversight for strictly standardizing sentence reduction or release on patrol for criminal cases involving officials,” it said.
In the past there were no clearly defined rules governing the process of sentence reduction or parole hearings.
The top judicial body also said that some local courts misunderstood the existing rules on early release. Under current legislation, criminals can be considered for early release only after serving at least three years of their sentence.
However, some lower courts interpret this to mean that after three years the original sentence must be reduced.
The new rule will help to ensure equity and fairness in decisions to commute sentences or grant release on probation, said Gong Ming, an official with the Supreme People’s Court.
Besides cases involving corrupt officials and crime bosses, hearings will also be required when warranting remissions to criminals who have made significant contributions to police investigations, or to those whose submissions have been rejected by procuratorate organs, the court said.
“It’s good for the courts to get feedback from prisons, convicts and inmates when granting commutation or probation,” said Supreme People’s Court spokesman Sun Jungong.
Under the new regulation, submissions of commutation and probation should be made public and the courts’ subsequent verdicts must be published on their official websites.
Publicizing submissions and verdicts will put the whole process into the public domain and give a boost to judicial transparency, Sun said.
There are more than 600,000 cases of commutation and probation in China every year.
However, alongside the valid role of remission in helping convicts return to society, judicial corruption involving criminals using money and power to dodge punishment has grown noticeably in recent years.
In one high-profile case, Zhang Hai, the former chairman of beverage giant Jianlibao Group, used illegal means to have his sentence cut by five years in a second court trial and by a further four years while serving his time.
Three people linked to the case have already been imprisoned, while 21 others — including 11 members of the judiciary and prison service, three people who work in detention centers, a court official and two lawyers — are under investigation.
Regular inspections will be conducted across the country throughout the year in a bid to crack down on such forms of corruption, Gong said.
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