Procuratorates to be monitored ( 2003-10-31 09:34) (China Daily)
The Supreme People's Procuratorate has initiated a pilot mechanism which
allows inviting common people as supervisors to oversee occupational offence
cases that are directly accepted and handled by procuratorial organs.
These cases include corruption, bribery, breaches of citizens' democratic
rights and misconduct in office.
The idea of using supervisors is the result of recommendations from
governmental institutions, social organizations and enterprises, said Zhang
Zhongfang, spokesman of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
He said these supervisors will have a voice in decisions on whether to place
cases on file for investigation and whether or not to initiate prosecution.
The supervisors can express their views on what they see as improper or
illegal actions of procuratorial staff and can participate in the investigation
of cases, Zhang added.
So far, 10 provinces around China have set up pilot people's supervisor
mechanisms, the process starting in September this year, and around 3,000 common
people have been recommended for the first group of supervisors.
Zhang said the initiation of the supervisory mechanism was a major reform
taken by the highest procuratorial organ in response to the dissatisfaction of
many people with the settlement of several occupational offence cases because of
the lack of outside supervision.
Under the trial mechanism, if the investigation department of a procuratorial
organ makes a decision not to place a case on file for investigation, or the
prosecution department decides not to initiate prosecution of a case, the two
departments should hand in related documents to supervisors for review.
Then the supervisors, usually three to nine on a single case, will present
their opinion on the issue after deliberation.
If their opinion is different from that of the porcuratorial organ, the
supervisors can ask the upper level procuratorial organ to submit a
judgment.
