Jiang Wei attends the press conference on judicial reform in Beijing on Monday.[Photo/china.org.cn]

Some 1,603 defendants have been acquitted in the past two years amid measures to protect human rights, according to a top judicial reform official.

The acquittals were conducted by courts in light of legally prescribed punishment for specific crimes and presumption of innocence, said Jiang Wei, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Judicial Reform, on Monday. "It bolsters public confidence in judicial justice".

To prevent and redress cases involving unjust, false or wrongful charges and hold those responsible accountable, the central judicial organ has promulgated several decrees since the Eighteenth National Party Congress in 2012, including Regulations on Achieving Prevention of Unjust, False and Wrongfully Decided Cases issued in 2013.

Half of all municipalities, provinces and autonomous regions have established a system of assigning criminal cases to judicial review to prevent unjust, false and wrongfully charged cases, said Huang Ming, vice-minister of public security.

To better protect human rights, China has abolished the system of reeducation through labor, further protected lawyers' rights to exercising their duties, is gradually curtailing crimes punishable by death and further regulating judicial procedures concerning disposition of properties.