Aspecial panel of the Legislative Council, an advisory organ for the justice minister, on Feb. 8 submitted an interim report on reform of the criminal justice system to the council. Despite 1½ years of discussions, the report appears to have forgotten the most important goal: how to prevent false charges from being filed against innocent people. In discussing concrete points to be implemented for the reform, the council should give priority to preventing false charges through fair investigations and trials.
It is regrettable that the interim report did not come out with a straightforward proposal to institutionalize electronic recordings of the entire interrogation of suspects — the main theme of the reform. Instead, it included two proposals: one to electronically record the entire interrogation process and the other to leave police officers and public prosecutors with some discretion in deciding on electronic recordings.
This is bizarre as it is the latter method that leads to the use of abusive interrogation practices that generate false confessions. As the aim of the reform is to enforce a mechanism that ensures that investigators carry out fair and proper investigation, it runs counter to reason to leave the question of whether to record interrogations to the discretion of investigators.