China promotes recording, videotaping of interrogations
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-05-16 20:51 China will promote live
recordings and full videotaping of interrogations of criminals suspected of
murder and gang crimes, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Tuesday.
He Ting, director of the ministry's criminal investigation department, said
the measures would help bar the use of torture to extract confessions.
It will also prevent criminal suspects from revoking confessions or bringing
false charges against interrogators, He told a press conference.
An increasing number of local public security bureaus in economically
developed areas including Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang,Guangdong and Jiangsu have
adopted these measures, according to He.
"It is, however, still premature for police departments across the country to
implement such measures because of the gap in economic development and lack of
police in the remote western areas," He noted.
The ministry has explicitly ordered the use of recording and videotaping of
interrogations in the imminent national campaign onthe crackdown of Mafia-like
criminal groups.
The phenomena of policemen extorting confessions from criminal suspects by
torture has been repeatedly exposed and reported by the Chinese media in recent
years, sparking public outcry.
The Ministry launched a program to increase transparency in the public
security departments on August 1 last year.
China's procurators will also dispatch special officials to public security
departments to monitor the interrogation of criminal suspects in order to ensure
that confessions are not extracted by torture.
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