China’s top prosecutor urges courts to cut entrepreneurs more slack, as concerns grow about unfair treatment
- Zhang Jun, the head of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, said courts should try to avoid formal charges and seek probation when possible
- Private business leaders and workers are far more likely to face criminal charges compared with their peers in the state sector
China’s chief prosecutor has called for entrepreneurs to be given more leeway by the country’s judicial system in an indirect acknowledgement that private business leaders sometimes face unequal treatment from the country’s courts.
Zhang Jun, who is also minister for justice, said prosecutors should give the private economy greater support as far as the law permitted.
“For private businessmen who are being investigated, [we should] take the position that there should be no arrest or charges whenever it is possible and consider probation as the preferred sentence if possible,” Zhang said, according to China National Radio.
“The Supreme People’s Procuratorate takes fairness seriously in protecting the legitimate rights of private businesses,” Zhang told an open day for the state prosecutor. “[We have] taken a clear position about investigations involving private entrepreneurs.”
According to the report, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has launched a 10-month-long special review looking into the detention of private entrepreneurs and an unspecified number of businessmen had been set free.