China seeks forensic watchdog

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 08, 2004

China seeks forensic watchdog

China is trying to find a single watchdog for forensic labs and other institutions that provide professional opinions on the validity of judicial evidence such as documents and signatures.

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China is trying to find a single watchdog for forensic labs and other institutions that provide professional opinions on the validity of judicial evidence such as documents and signatures. The Ministry of Justice is working on a bill on the administration of forensic institutions, Minister of Justice Zhang Fusen said Wednesday.

A resident of Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, was beaten in late 2002, but three forensic labs presented quite different results about how severely he had been injured. His experience is not an exception in China. Parties to a lawsuit often get different results from different institutions or have to test the same evidence in several institutions.

In China these institutions are subject to different administrations, including the police, the procuratory, the judiciary, hospitals and colleges.

The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme People's Court have both issued regulations on their own forensic institutions, but there are no standardized rules.

"We need uniform rules to answer such questions as what kind of people are qualified to provide services, how can we make sure that they operate according to the rules, and how are the labs to be run," said Du Zhichun, director of the Institute of Forensic Sciences under the Ministry of Justice.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, discussed a draft bill on the administration of forensic institutions for the first time in 2002, but said it needed time for further study before; the bill would be passed.

The Ministry of Justice will try to promote the adoption of the bill in an early date, Zhang said.

Source: Xinhua

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