The Supreme People's Procuratorate has released the revised Provisions on the Reexamination of Criminal Appeal Cases by People's Procuratorates (the "Provisions").
The revised Provisions strengthen the protection and regulation of the right to appeal in various aspects, including lowering the threshold for appeal by further revising and improving the conditions for appeal; facilitating the appeal made by a party concerned by detailing the requirements on appeal materials; specifying that the appellant's opinions shall be listened to in the reexamination of criminal appeal cases, and a decision on reexamination shall be publicly announced and on suspension or termination of the handling of a case shall be notified to the appellant.
The revised Provisions make comprehensive revisions and improvements in relation to the jurisdiction, acceptance, case filing, and reexamination of criminal appeal cases, in which the time limit for the reexamination is two months; where there is a request for transferring all the case records, the reexamination time shall start to count from the date when all the case records are in place. For significant, difficult and complicated cases, the time limit for reexamination may be extended appropriately upon approval of the department head or chief procurator.