The number of China's illegally prolonged custody cases has dropped to a record low in recent years.

The SPP said there were 271 suspects enduring illegally prolonged detention in 2005, while the figure stood at 43,438 in 2002. And the SPP received 85 hotline reports in 2005 on extended custody, which provided important clues for tracking down illegally prolonged custody, down 1,991 from the year of 2002.

So far, all of the 271 cases discovered last year have been redressed.

Zhang attributed the drop to the stringent regulation which said officers who unlawfully prolonged a suspect's custody should be given criminal penalty.

Illegally prolonged custody, however, remains a headache in the country's law enforcement sector. In some areas, the number of law enforcers could not meet the actual demands, causing cases that could not be investigated and tried on time and finally extended criminal suspect's custody term.

In addition, some cases were too complicated to finish investigation within the suspect's custody term.

Zhang said although the number of illegally extended detention cases has dropped to a record low, a long-term prevention system is still required to prevent such cases in the future.

The SPP has already drafted a regulation on the prevention and redressing of illegally prolonged detention. It is expected to be publicized by the end of this year after further discussion with the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security.

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