Beijing – China on Wednesday approved a legal revision to allow secret detentions by police, despite widespread opposition by lawyers, activists and international rights groups. The revised Criminal Procedure Law was endorsed by 92 per cent of the 2,872 delegates taking part in quick-fire voting at the close of a 10-day annual meeting of the National People's Congress, China's nominal state parliament. The law allows “residential surveillance” for up to six months without informing relatives if a suspect is arrested on charges linked to “state security” or terrorism, and if informing relatives could “hinder the investigation” of a crime. It requires police to inform relatives of a suspect's detention within 24 hours in all other cases. The government issued the draft law for public consultation in September, drawing strong criticism. The law would “violate China's obligations under international law,” US-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. “The draft criminal procedure law contains many positive provisions, but the government's stated goal of improving due process will be severely undermined by allowing incommunicado detention of people in undisclosed locations,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “Such provisions represent a clear danger for government critics and human rights activists, and are in clear contravention of China's international obligations,” Richardson said. Amnesty International also opposed Article 73 of the new law, which legalizes the “increasingly common practice” of police subjecting rights activists and dissidents to “enforced disappearance.” Rights activists have already adopted the sarcastic phrase “Article 73-ed” to describe missing peers on their microblogs. “Such an extension of police powers would effectively legalize secret detentions and disappearances,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific. Rights groups have long accused China of routinely using state security charges against dissidents. “China is at risk of creating a two-track criminal justice system, where basic legal protections for those suspected of vaguely defined crimes such as ‘endangering national security' are stripped away,” Baber said. “This would fundamentally undermine China's long-stated commitment to the rule of law as well as the leadership's claim that they have drafted these revisions to ‘ensure people's freedom' and ‘protect human rights',” she said. But state media on Wednesday reiterated the government's insistence that the approved law “highlighted human rights protection” by protecting suspects from illegal detention in most circumstances. The approved version omitted an earlier draft provision that would have also allowed police to hold suspects in major economic crimes in secret detention. Police secretly detained dozens of activists without informing relatives last year, sometimes in unmarked buildings commonly known as “black jails.” Several prominent rights lawyers were among the highest profile victims of a crackdown that was linked to calls for protests against the ruling Communist Party. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/UM0Gj Tags: China, Detentions, featured, Jail, Secret Section: East Asia, Human Rights, Latest News
