BEIJING POISED TO AMEND ANTI-CORRUPTION LAW
Proposed changes include allowing bail during investigations but also extending the period suspects in detention are denied access to a lawyer
China is set to amend its anti-corruption law, allowing bail for corruption suspects during investigations but also extending the detention period in which suspects are denied access to a lawyer.
A draft amendment to the Supervision Law was under review by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, China’s top legislative body, during its four-day session that ended on Friday, Xinhua said.
It would be the first amendment since the legislation’s introduction in March 2018. The draft was published on the NPC website on Friday as a month-long public consultation starts.
The Xinhua report did not say when and whether the standing committee would approve the amendments but legislative amendments are generally adopted after three reviews.
Some lawyers said the draft did not give them more leeway in defending their clients while providing anti-corruption agencies more legal tools to carry out investigations.
Under one new provision, investigators are authorised to “compel an individual who is suspected of serious dereliction of duties or committing a crime by abusing power to make himself available for investigation”.
The same provision also stipulates that investigators can only hold a suspect for 12 hours under normal circumstances, though the detention may be extended to 24 hours if it is deemed necessary considering the safety and psychological conditions of the suspect. Investigators would not be allowed to hold a suspect indefinitely by repeatedly extending the detention.
Another proposal would allow suspects of minor corruption offences to be released on bail for a maximum period of 12 months.
In addition, one provision would permit investigators to hold suspects of minor offences in a detention facility even if the suspects are not officially detained but deemed to pose “real security risks”, such as flight risk or the risk of suicide.
Under such circumstances, investigators would have to send the suspect to detention facilities within 24 hours after they identify the risk and decide within seven days whether to formally hold them in detention or release them.
The amendment means the period of disciplinary detention – commonly known as – may be extended. Under current law, disciplinary detention allows anti-corruption investigators to hold a suspect at designated facilities for up to six months. Such detention could apply to anyone employed in the state sector or on a public payroll, including officials, academics and teachers as well as those suspected of offering bribes.
A new provision would let investigators extend the detention another two months if they determine that a suspect’s offence could warrant more than 10 years’ imprisonment and that their inquiry cannot be completed within six months.
However, the extension would require approval from the country’s top anti-corruption body, the National Supervisory Commission – which is essentially the same body as the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
Additionally, the provision states, if the anti-corruption agency at or above the provincial level discovers the suspect has committed other serious crimes, it can apply to the national agency for a renewal of their detention period, which can be as long as eight months. The change means suspects in corruption cases may not be able to see a lawyer for more than a year before prosecutors charge them.
According to the CCDI, China’s top anti-corruption body, some 26,000 disciplinary detentions were ordered in 2023.
The most controversial feature of the Supervision Law has been that people detained by anticorruption authorities are not allowed access to lawyers until they have been formally charged.
Despite years of calls from lawyers and legal scholars to change the rule, the proposed amendment does not modify it.
Xie Dan, a partner at Beijing Ronghe Law Firm, said: “We lawyers have been concerned over the years about how the authorities can protect the rights of suspects during investigations. The amendment partly addresses these concerns by providing alternatives to and providing more details about how the system works.”
But, he added, “I still think that the authorities should allow them [suspects in corruption cases] to meet with lawyers during detention.”
Jin Hongwei, a partner at Beijing Huayi Law Firm, said that under the current Supervision Law, investigation almost automatically meant detention, and the new measures of the draft amendment made the transition from investigation to detention “more nuanced”.
Jin said the changes were expected to have a major impact on those under investigation, but “not on lawyers”.
For the first time, the draft also states that anti-corruption agencies should not “use their power to illegally interfere in the operation of enterprises” and should protect the “rights and interests of personal freedom and property” of entrepreneurs under investigation. Beijing has called for protection of private enterprises to create a more favourable business environment as China endures a weak recovery.