China Supreme Court rules out confession through torture

BEIJING (Reuters) - Using torture to extract confessions must be eliminated, China's Supreme People's Court said on Thursday, singling out a widespread practice that has long attracted international condemnation.

"Inquisition by torture used to extract a confession, as well as the use of cold, hunger, drying, scorching, fatigue and other illegal methods to obtain confessions from the accused must be eliminated," the Supreme Court said in a statement posted on its official microblog account.