An expert speaking at an AIDS conference in Beijing has called on China's police to stop the practice of arresting women for prostitution simply because they were found carrying condoms. "We have investigated many education-through-labor camps, and we have found that for those sentenced for prostitution, the sole evidence was that they possessed condoms," Xinhua News Agency quoted the unnamed expert as saying. A government official, however, said the police had already ceased doing so. "In 2001, the propaganda bureau and the police issued a joint directive that as for the use of condoms, they would not be considered evidence," said Han Mengjie, a senior official at the cabinet-level AIDS prevention office. "As far as I know, since we started our AIDS awareness campaign and consulted with the police ministry, police throughout China have stopped using condoms as evidence." Without holding a trial, police in China can convict suspects and sentence them for up to two years in labor camps.

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