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The ratification of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in October 2005, was a milestone in our fight against graft.

But amending our criminal procedure law to revise those articles inconsistent with the UN convention is a task we must fulfill as early as possible. This is a consensus agreed on by judicial experts.

With the rapid globalization, corruption has become internationalized. Statistics from the World Bank in 2003 indicated that $2 trillion from corruption were flowing worldwide annually. So international cooperation becomes imperative to fight the scourge.

That thousands of corrupt officials fled abroad with their dirty money also suggests we need cooperation from other countries.

In such circumstances, the UN convention cannot facilitate our anti-corruption efforts unless we have a criminal procedure law that is consistent with it in both spirit and content.

For example, the concept of assumption has never been clarified in our criminal procedure law although it constitutes a crime to own property or cash whose source cannot be clarified.

The convention stipulates assumption can be made from strong evidence about purpose, motivation and intent. This is important because corruption suspects seldom admit to accepting bribes or embezzling public funds, and it is impossible to be sure if they asked for the bribes or were offered them. But the clarification of the fact makes a difference to what penalty is meted out.

Assumption, if it can be stipulated in our criminal procedure law, will make it easier to identify the nature of a corruption case and thus reduce the chance of corrupt officials escaping punishment by telling lies or keeping silent about their crimes.

Trial by default is what we do not have in our criminal procedure law but the convention has. If this can be introduced, we will be able to try those suspected of being involved in corruption cases without them having to be present. This will also make a great difference to our cooperation with other countries in the extradition of fled suspects.

Just as some judicial experts say, to revise our criminal law in accordance with the UN convention against corruption will intensify our efforts against corruption while making sure those efforts strictly follow a justifiable procedure.

(China Daily 07/26/2007 page10)