MARCH 9, 2018 – A total of 31,527 prisoners were granted amnesty across China in the past five years, a work report of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said on Friday.
According to the report delivered by Chief Justice Zhou Qiang at a plenary meeting of the ongoing annual session of the National People’s Congress, Chinese courts have strengthened efforts to protect human rights in judicial practices.
“Death penalty decisions were strictly reviewed to make sure that death sentences only apply to an extremely small number of criminals for extremely severe offences,’’ it said.
The report noted that the SPC had worked with the Ministry of Justice to enhance the legal aid system.
According to the report, cases involving minors had witnessed decline for five consecutive years.
“A total of 2.67 billion Yuan (420 million dollars) of judicial subsidies have been granted to victims who failed to get compensations to help them continue with their life,’’ it said.
