China issues first set of guidelines on what constitutes torture

In a surprise manoeuvre, China has released specific rules as to what measures of interrogation will be permitted in order to secure admissible evidence.

Only evidence obtained through “legal means” will be considered in death sentence cases. The two regulations indicate that where evidence is extracted through torture (although there appears to be a marked absence of what constitutes torture in China), it will not be used in testimony. The regulations advise the various states within China how to exclude such evidence.

It is expected (or rather hoped) that the new procedural provisions will enable clearer interpretation of specific laws and the elimination of suspicion during case trials; therefore cut down on the number of death sentences passed by way of forced confessions. A united front was presented by the five central departments with a press release stating: 

"Not a single mistake is allowed in fact finding and collection of evidence in cases involving the death sentence."

It is likely that the new regulations were a result of the statistic obtained by the top court in 2008 that highlighted a disturbing 15% of death sentences passed in the lower courts were found to be awash with faults.

One man in particular will be relieved to learn of the attempted improvement. Zhao Zuohai was arrested and tortured until he confessed to the murder of a man and then imprisoned for over 11 years until the “murdered” man turned up alive!