The guidelines on plea bargaining in criminal lawsuits for lighter penalties to suspects who plead guilty were issued Tuesday, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The guidelines, jointly issued by the SPP, Supreme People’s Court, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Justice, provide specific regulations on the implementation of plea bargaining, including its operating conditions and scope, sentencing recommendations and on-trial and pretrial procedures.
The guidelines aim to “further improve criminal procedures, implement a policy that combines punishment with leniency, and more reasonably allocate judicial resources,” according to the statement from the conference.
In September 2016, the top legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, approved a two-year pilot program to allow suspects to plead guilty in return for a lesser charge in 18 cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Guangzhou.
Under the program, suspects and defendants who confess, agree with prosecutors’ indictments and sentencing proposals and sign affidavits will be given mitigated punishments.
It took 26 days on average for prosecuting organs to deal with such cases, and 83.5 percent of them were adjudicated by courts within 15 days.
On Oct 26, 2018, the top legislature passed the revised Criminal Procedure Law that established the plea-bargaining system.
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