The entire process of police interrogation in cases that may result in death penalties should be videotaped to prevent torture, a lawmaker proposed to the national legislature.

"Although much rectification has been made, there remains an outstanding problem of inquisition by torture in the judicial sector," said Yu Min, deputy to the National People's Congress.

The means of torture is "terrible" in some cases, leading to very serious consequences, said Yu in a proposal to the NPC.

Cases of wrongly convicted people make the public think torture is involved in police interrogations, he said.

"It's apparently not enough to merely ask judicial staff to change their mindset," said Yu. "Necessary measures are also required to curb inquisition by torture."

In an interview with the Chongqing Evening News, Yu said that in view of Chinese conditions, it is at least possible to introduce audiotaping of police interrogation.

The discipline inspection bureau of the Ministry of Public Security has given priority to tackling inquisition by torture, excessive use of compulsory measures, failure to perform duties and other law enforcement problems.

A national regulation on handling minor offenses of public order, effective on March 1, holds that information extracted through inquisition by torture will not be used as proof for penalties.

Prosecutors have started to dispatch special technicians to conduct live audio and video recordings of the interrogation of criminals suspected of job-related crimes.

By October 1, 2007, prosecutors will conduct real-time videotaping of all interrogations concerning job-related crimes, mainly involving graft and dereliction of duty.

Suspicion of torture was aroused by the case of She Xianglin, wrongly convicted for murdering his wife and jailed for 10 years. She later reappeared and cleared him.