E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6 page 36 procuratorate will initiate an investigation into cases where extortion under torture may constitute a crime. Liu Ruichuan, president of the Hebei provincial high court, highlighted in the 2005 progress report on rule of law developments in Hebei province that “Any witness deposition, victim testimony, or defendant statement that is verified for authenticity, and categorized as obtained through extortion under torture or other illegal means, cannot serve as the basis of a [criminal] verdict.” 58 The SPP will roll out a system of audio and videotaping with sound recording starting in March 2006 and video recording in October 2007. “Interrogations to be taped prevent confession by torture”, Associated Press in Beijing 19 January 2006. The following information was provided to the Special Rapporteur in written comments from the PRC on 25 January 2006: “… as of 1 March 2006, the country’s investigation and prosecution authorities will follow a three-step process in which interrogations of persons charged with crimes involving abuse of public office will be recorded in their entirety on audiotape or videotape. First, interrogations of all persons suspected of crimes involving abuse of public office must be recorded on audiotape in their entirety, and cases before the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the people’s procuratorates at the provincial, provincial capital and eastern district levels involving bribery and abuse of public office must be videotaped in their entirety; secondly, the recording (sound and video) in their entirety of cases of bribery and of crimes involving abuse of public office shall be extended to people’s procuratorates at the autonomous prefecture and municipal levels in the central and western part of the country and at the prefecture, county and district levels in the eastern part; thirdly, as of 1 October 2007, all interrogations of persons suspected of crimes involving abuse of public office shall be recorded in their entirety on both audiotape and videotape.” 59 In October 2005, the Supreme People’s Court issued its second five-year reform plan restoring to the Supreme Court the power of review over the death penalty. As of 1 January 2006, courts are required to hold hearings in death penalty cases of second instance where an appeal has been raised because of serious factual or evidentiary problems. According to information provided to the Special Rapporteur by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the second half of 2006, all death penalty cases of second instance will be tried in a court hearing. 60 Indeed, despite a variety of legal, administrative, discipline inspection and auditing oversight systems (i.e. Party Committee Discipline Units and Oversight Police), central monitoring is undermined by the fact that the oversight organs tend to be dominated by the local PSBs, while the Party- and state-based oversight organs tend to strengthen the control of local Party officials over public security. This situation is aggravated by problems of under funding and poor remuneration for police, particularly in economically disadvantaged provinces. According to the March 2005 Study of the Prevention of and Counter Measures for The Extortion of Confessions by Torture of the Legal Studies Association (The Task Group On The Prevention of the Use of Torture in Interrogation), “In some impoverished areas, the investigating organs’ budgets are extremely tight. This is also an important external reason for the use of torture. When money is tight, there arises the conflict between saving costs and improving success rate. The investigators, in order to save on costs, will not want to carry out difficult and detailed