(Clearwisdom.net) According to the July 22nd, 2003 Beijing Evening News, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has made available to the media its special investigation project concerning over-term imprisonment and the actions needed to be taken to correct it. The news spokesperson of the Procuratorate claimed that three provincial level chief procurators had made self-criticisms to admit their mistakes to the Procuratorate.
The Procuratorate had already drafted investigation regulations for over-term imprisonment. After discussion and approval by experts, the regulations were to be distributed to subordinate procuratorates for enforcement. These regulations stipulated that if the result of over-term imprisonment is serious and violates criminal laws, then legal responsibility should be pursued. Vice chief procurator Zhao Dengju of the Procuratorate said over-term imprisonment is the same as illegal detention, and from now on it is absolutely not allowed to use deceptive tactics such as rejection of inspections, cancellation of prosecution, and change of jurisdiction to continue imprisonment of suspects or defendants over the limits of their terms.