The government has paid about 170 million yuan (22.97 million
U.S. dollars) of state compensation to citizens in the past five
years, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said on Wednesday.
The courts have closed about 12,000 cases seeking state
compensation in the past five years, said a statement issued by the
SPC.
The courts had worked for better implementation of the 1995 Law
on State Compensation, according to Xiao Yang, China's Chief Justice. He said this
effort had taken several forms. For instance, courts had adopted
the practice of having both parties present in disputes over the
amount and form of state compensation.
Many cases seeking state compensation implicate the government
and law enforcement agencies. "The SPC has worked hard to safeguard
the integrity of such lawsuits," Xiao said, and tried changing
venues to avoid what he said was interference.
The SPC was also helping the legislature amend the law. An
earlier report said that the SPC has worked out a draft
amendment.
Legal experts have argued that the present law on state
compensation has several weaknesses.
For one thing, compensation standards are comparatively low and
don't cover mental anguish. For example, the compensation for
impairing a citizen's personal freedom is equal to the average
daily wage announced by the National Bureau of Statistics. This
year, that figure is 83.66 yuan (11 U.S. dollars). This means a
person will get just 11 U.S. dollars as compensation for being
wrongfully detained by the police for 24 hours.
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(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)
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