Recently, the Supreme People's Court ("SPC") and the Supreme People's Procuratorate ("SPP") together with the Ministry of Public Security ("MPS"), the Ministry of State Security ("MSS") and the Ministry of Justice ("MOJ") have issued the Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Strict Exclusion of Illegal Evidence in Handling Criminal Cases (the "Provisions"), effective from June 27, 2017.
The Provisions encompass 42 articles organized into five sections. The Provisions, aimed at imposing accurate punishments on criminals, protecting human rights earnestly and promoting the judicial justice, specify the criteria of identifying and the exclusion process for illegal evidence through criminal investigation, prosecution, defense, trial and adjudication. The Provisions point out that it is strictly prohibited to extort confessions by torture or collect evidence through threat, incitement, deception or any other illegal means and that any person should not be compelled to testify against himself or herself or to confess guilt. According to the Provisions, a criminal suspect, while being interrogated in the stages of arrest, review and prosecution, should be informed of his or her right to apply for excluding illegal evidence, right of action, and legal consequences if he or she pledges guilty. In the event that a criminal suspect and his or her attorney apply for excluding illegal evidence and provide relevant clues or materials for that purpose, the people's procuratorate shall initiate an investigation to verify those clues and materials. Moreover, the Provisions stress that a legal aid attorney should be appointed in accordance with relevant provisions to offer assistance to the criminal suspect or the defendant, if he or she applies for legal aid.