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Chinese people's courts have over the past five years paid special
attention to protecting human rights in the area of administering
justice, said Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court.
Delivering a report on the work of the Supreme People's Court to
the first session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC)
Tuesday morning, the chief justice said the people's courts in the
country have paid meticulous attention to establishing facts,
evidence, procedures and applicable laws in handling different
cases and declared not guilty 11,651 defendants in cases of private
prosecution and 17,870 defendants in case of public
prosecution.
The people's courts followed the principles of education, reform
and redemption in handling juvenile cases, awarding probation as
much as possible to under aged people who committed minor offenses
that would no longer bring harms to the society so as to encourage
them to repent and correct, Xiao said.
Meanwhile, Xiao said, Chinese courts have been very careful in
handling administrative cases, seeing to it that the lawful rights
and interests of litigants are protected and administrative
agencies comply with laws in perform their duties.
Xiao said that the people's courts closed 464,689 administrative
cases, 65 percent more than in the previous five years and handled
11,321 cases claiming for state compensation and judgments were
given to 4,013 cases in favor of citizens, accounting for 35
percent, making wronged citizens get due judicial relief.
According to the chief justice, people's courts have tried every
means to bring the judicial assistance system to perfection. They
allowed a grace period in the payment of charges or waive the
charges for litigants in difficulty, especially women, old people,
underaged people, disabled people and laid-off workers claiming for
alimony, endowments, social benefits and old age pension in
litigation cases. For defendants of publicly prosecuted cases, the
courts appointed lawyers for them to ensure the protection of their
rights.
The courts provided judicial assistance to 590,000 cases over the
past five years, involving 3.2 billion yuan, according to Xiao.
(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2003)
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