1st Ld-Writethru-China Focus: Website puts parole cases in the public domain

A website launched by China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Friday will inform the public of commutation of sentences, parole and out-of-prison enforcement.

The public can access documents including applications for mitigation, parole or out-of-prison enforcement and the date when cases will be heard, according to a statement of the SPC.

If the cases will attract public attention and will be influential, the videos of trials will be available on the website. The documents released will not include those that must not be made public according to law.

Jing Hanchao, vice president of the SPC said courts should make full use of the platform to ensure each and every appropriate case is handled in a transparent and fair way.

The move is a response to misconduct in handling of cases in the past.

Prosecutors have found a high proportion of commutation and probation granted to those with money and/or power, according to Yuan Qiguo, a senior prosecutor with the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

Zhang Hai, former chair of Jianlibao Group Co. Ltd., a beverage company, had his sentence cut by five years in a second trial and further reduced by more than four years while serving the sentence, all illegally.

This kind of judicial corruption has led the SPC and the SPP to target powerful and rich criminals: the SPC in 2014 revoked 1,739 criminals' rights to serve a sentence outside jail and returned them to prison.

Xia Daohu from the SPC, said powerful criminals should be treated "specially". "Inmates with hypertension are normally granted the right to serve a sentence outside jail, but, as long as there is no risk to life, serving their sentences outside jail should be denied." Endi