Defendants ‘presumed guilty’ in China’s courts, says top lawyer
Presumption of guilt is widespread among law enforcers and leads to torture, delegate says
There is a widespread and dangerous "presumption of guilt" among mainland law enforcers, the vice-chairman of the All China Lawyers Association warned on Thursday.
Several recent high-profile cases of injustice had demonstrated just how deeply entrenched such presumptions were, Zhu Zhengfu said.
"Why do we get the extraction of confession through torture? That's because of the presumption of guilt," Zhu, a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference delegate, said on the sidelines of a forum.
"An arrest is made on one day, then the next day you have the suspect confessing on television, and some are forced to confess," Zhu said.
"After the confession, [law enforcers] immediately say the case has been solved and they celebrate their achievement. So you can imagine how much pressure the court is under if it wants to pass an innocent verdict."
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Zhu proposed to the advisory body a law be enacted to fully protect each citizen's right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. This would strengthen article 33 of the Chinese constitution that says "the state respects and guarantees human rights", said Zhu.