Reform of Compulsory Power – Power of Monitoring to be Transferred to Judge Within One Year

In light of the criticism of prosecutors’ abuse of the power to issue monitoring warrants, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Chen Ding-nan, announced on May 20, 2002 to send the enactment of “Law of Protection and Control of Communication” into action within one year in order to have the power to issue the warrant of monitoring communication for pending cases be transferred to judges.  This will be another reform of compulsory power succeeding that of transferring the powers of detention and search to courts.

“Prosecutors have been falsely accused for the late two years of abusing the power to impose dispositions.  The prosecutors’ efforts and achievements were taken away because of the false accusation of abusing the compulsory power.  Such accusation is unfair to all of the prosecutors.  The Ministry of Justice hopes to reverse the public’s views towards the prosecutors by virtue of enacting the law voluntarily, so as to enable the prosecutors to be praised for evaluating human rights and processing cases efficiently and effectively.”, said the Minister Chen Ding-nan.

Source:China Times 05/21/2002