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Training provided for 140,000 prosecutors
By Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-31 09:35

China will introduce specialized training courses for about 140,000 prosecutors nationwide in a bid to "strengthen their supervisory skills as well as their ability to handle cases", the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Monday.

The move is aimed at "plugging any inadequacies that prosecutors may face in their comprehensive and specialization duties", the SPP guidelines on procuratorial education and training up to 2012, released Monday, said.

"There is still some way to go for strict, fair and civilized legal enforcement," it said.

SPP spokesman Tong Jianming said the training would focus on areas such as improving prosecutors' investigation capacity when dealing with criminal cases, improving their skills to issue arrest warrants and to argue cases.

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Training in legal supervision will also include supervisions over investigations by the police department as well as trials, Tong added.

Tong also underlined that the training will help prosecutors to deal with economic crimes in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Effective measures must be taken to deal with economic disputes and protect employees' interests, Tong said.

According to the document, starting this year, the SPP will hold an annual political training course for provincial-level prosecutor-generals.

This year, the SPP will also finish training leading officials of provincial procuratorates.

Chen Weidong, a professor with Renmin University of China, lauded the country's effort to better train prosecutors.

"Prosecution is a highly-specialized profession. Only with sound occupational and political capacity can prosecutors practice judicial fairness and efficiency," Chen told China Daily.