U.N. torture envoy in China

[Judi Lynn]

U.N. torture envoy in China
Reuters

Nov 21, 2005 — By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.N. envoy on torture arrives in China on Monday as Beijing grapples with a series of cases in which people have been wrongly convicted after giving forced confessions, a practice rights groups says happens too often.

Manfred Nowak, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Torture, will stay for about two weeks and visit Beijing, Tibet and the restive western Muslim region of Xinjiang. He is also scheduled to visit detention centers.

China says it does not condone torture or forced confessions, and has asked courts to think twice before handing down the death penalty lest judgments be based on confessions forcefully extracted in prison.

This summer, China's parliament passed a bill mandating punishment for policemen who torture detainees during interrogation and other offences.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1332824