Supreme Court weighs rules to keep evidence within law

The mainland's top court is drafting new guidelines on excluding illegally obtained evidence.

It is hoped the move could help reduce confessions obtained through torture, but legal experts are sceptical given previous efforts have failed.

The Supreme People's Court issued guidelines in 2010 on excluding illegally obtained evidence but there has not been any reported instance of such evidence being excluded from trial. The process drew criticism because it required defendants to provide evidence of torture. The new rules are an attempt to clarify court procedure.

The court is also considering requiring police to present video of the entire interrogation process. It might decide that police evidence would be inadmissible if the officers did not testify in court, a source who has seen previous drafts of the guidelines told the South China Morning Post.

Judges should also make timely decisions within hearing sessions on requests by the defence for the court to investigate whether evidence was obtained irregularly.

"If these measures appear in the final guidelines, I believe a lot of the problems with confessions obtained through torture could be addressed," the source said.