Posts tagged ‘Rio Tinto’
Judicial Reform Coming to China! International Community Elated!
April 1: This morning, China’s Minister of Justice Wu Aiying held a press conference in which she declared the need for greater judicial transparency. The announcement came in the wake of a decision involving four executives of the mining corporation Rio Tinto, who were accused of bribery and stealing trade secrets. The defendants were sentenced to 7-14 years in prison, including 10 years for Australian Stern Hu.
“There are important questions about due process raised by this case,” Ms. Wu commented, “particularly since large parts of the case were heard behind closed doors.”
Ms. Wu announced that she intended to introduce a broad set of reforms to the Chinese justice system, which would greatly strengthen the principles of judicial impartiality, transparency, and fairness.
“If we are able to pass these reforms, after rigorous debate in the People’s National Congress, it will be a great step forward for the cause of justice in China.”
She also noted that tendency of Chinese courts to give exceptionally harsher sentences to those who plead not-guilty (leading to nearly universal pleas of guilty, as in the Rio Tinto case) goes against the principle that a defendant should be presumed innocent. She expressed concern that such cases as these were hurting the reputation of China’s justice system internationally.
Several high-profile international cases had indeed strained relations between China and various Western countries recently. China’s execution on December…
