Rule of law maintained in crimes about pandemic

Chinese judicial and procuratorial organs have upheld the rule of law in the country’s fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the work reports of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate delivered to the annual national legislative session on Monday.

The SPC, working with other departments, has issued a number of guidelines on matters concerning epidemic response, including guidelines on crackdown on COVID-19 outbreak-related crimes, on fighting crimes of impairing frontier quarantine measures and on handling legal issues concerning the resumption of work and production, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said while delivering the SPC’s work report.

The top court has made public 57 typical cases involving epidemic-related crimes and services for promoting the resumption of work and production, Zhou said.

Chinese courts at all levels have concluded 2,736 epidemic-related cases, he noted, adding that “smart courts” using Internet technologies played an important role during the outbreak, with 1.36 million cases filed online nationwide.

The report said Chinese courts will employ various judicial means to provide judicial guarantees for regular epidemic response and restoration of economic and social order. Efforts will be made to strengthen judicial response amid regular epidemic control to safeguard people’s lives and health, the report said.

From February to April, Chinese procuratorial organs approved the arrest of 3,751 people in criminal cases related to COVID-19 and prosecuted 2,521 people, Procurator-General Zhang Jun said while delivering the SPP’s work report.

The procuratorial organs handled 2,829 public interest litigation cases in areas such as the regulation of masks and other protective supplies, medical waste disposal and wildlife protection, Zhang noted.

On other fronts, the number of people prosecuted for severe violent crimes in China has dropped by an average annual rate of 4.8 percent over the past two decades. The decline reflects the constantly improved public security in China.

The figure plummeted from 162,000 in 1999 to 60,000 in 2019, according to the report submitted to the ongoing national legislative session for deliberation.

A total of 50,800 people were prosecuted in 2019 for environment-related crimes including damaging the environment and smuggling imported waste, up 20.4 percent year on year. A total of 69,236 public interest litigations in the environmental domain were handled in 2019, up 16.7 percent.

Procuratorates have also enhanced efficiency in handling letters from the public. For the 491,829 letters received in 2019, procuratorial agencies replied on the handling process or results to 99.2 percent within three months after the letters were received.