Procuratorial organs strengthen national defense

Procuratorial organs have further enhanced the effectiveness of legal supervision and actively apply the rule of law to protect national defense interests, and the legitimate rights and interests of servicemen and their families, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Friday.

In recent years, China has accelerated the process of formulating regulations and laws related to the military, and these laws have been promulgated successively, providing legal norms for the protection of servicemen's rights and interests, as well as national defense and military construction, said an prosecutor from SPP.

From January 2022 to June 2023, procuratorates nationwide prosecuted 351 military-related criminal cases, involving 498 people, according to SPP.

Procuratorial organs have issued a series of guidance cases of punishing crimes that endanger national defense interests, and have infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of servicemen and their families since 2021, effectively enhancing people's awareness of national defense and the rule of law, he said.

The SPP issued nine guidance cases related to military and soldiers on Friday, covering the most common and frequent crime types, such as impersonating soldiers to commit fraud, destroying military facilities, buying and selling armed forces documents, special signs of armed forces, uniforms of armed forces, obtaining state secrets, destroying service people's marriages, and infringing on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs.

In one case that occurred in February 2021, two men surnamed Ma and Yang drove a three-wheeled motorcycle and entered a military firing range by breaking a barbed wire with cutters.

They tried to transport and sell a metal tank mobile combat target in the military firing range. Due to the large volume of the combat target, they cut it into several pieces and loaded on the tricycle.

The two were captured by patrolling police officers on their way back home. After appraisal, it was determined that the military facilities they damaged were valued at 29,335 yuan($4,100).

The two were prosecuted in May 2021, charged with sabotaging military installations. In August, Ma was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison and Yang was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

The prosecutor said that procuratorial organs have strengthened the cooperation with military departments to improve the effectiveness of handling military-related cases. Besides, prosecutors have placed more emphasis on explaining the application of the law and the interpretation of the law through cases, in order to cultivate the public's national defense awareness and the values of respecting the serviceman.