Posted on 02/15/2021 5:22:37 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Chinese regime’s highest court issued a detailed interpretation of a criminal procedure law on Feb. 4, stipulating that trial in absentia can be applied to defendants who “seriously endanger national security” and are based outside China, according to Chinese media reports.
“Trial in absentia” refers to criminal proceedings in which a defendant is not physically present to attend said proceedings.
China observers worry that the move is aimed at intimidating Chinese dissidents who live abroad.
In 2018, China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, enacted amendments to its criminal procedure law to allow more courts to try people in absentia. But it was not until this month that China’s Supreme Court gave a clear legal interpretation of it. The guidance will be implemented on March 1 this year.
The court defined “crimes of endangering national security” as “organizing, planning, and implementing division of the country, undermining national unity, inciting to split the country, subversion of state power, overthrowing the socialist system by spreading rumors, slander, and other means.”
In an interview with The Epoch Times, China-based media commentator Wu Te said that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) move was clearly intended to intimidate overseas dissidents and to legalize its financial persecution of dissidents such as through suspending their Chinese pensions, confiscating their properties in China, and freezing their bank accounts.
For example, Cai Xia is a former professor at Beijing’s Central Party School, the top school for training Party cadres. Cai retired in 2012 and moved to the United States in 2019. Since retirement, she has become an outspoken critic of Beijing.
On Aug. 17, 2020, Cai Xia was expelled from the Party and her retirement benefits were cancelled, after she made speeches criticizing Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the CCP. Three days later, authorities froze Cai’s bank account.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
I suppose Xiden will be quick to turn them over.
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Coming soon to a court room near you
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