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BEIJING – China will stop handing down labour camp sentences this year under a system that allowed police to lock up government critics and other defendants for up to four years without trial, the country’s top law enforcement official said Monday.

The move would be a key step in reforming China’s judicial system, though details remained unclear, including what would become of existing “reeducation through labour” camps and their current inmates and whether this presages a new system involving court hearings before defendants can be sent to such facilities.

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The comments by Communist Party Politics and Law Committee head Meng Jianzhu were not officially announced, but were reported by Chen Dongsheng, a bureau chief for the Legal Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Justice Ministry.

The proposal must first be sent to China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, for approval, Chen quoted Meng as saying.