Supreme People’s Procuratorate Holds Press Conference to Highlight Prosecutorial Work in 2023
On February 26, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate held a press conference to inform the procuratorial organs of the work of “strengthening criminal prosecution supervision and promoting criminal justice justice” in 2023, and released relevant typical cases in 2023.
Miao Shengming, deputy ministerial-level member of the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and director of the First Procuratorate, stated that in recent years, China’s criminal structure has undergone significant changes. The proportion of cases sentenced to three years in prison has remained stable above 85% in recent years.
In 2023, the procuratorial organs prosecuted more than 1.6 million suspects of various criminal crimes. Chen Guoqing, a member of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Party Committee and Deputy Prosecutor General, reported that in 2023, procuratorial organs across the country approved the arrest of more than 700,000 suspects of various criminal crimes and prosecuted more than 1.6 million people.
Additionally, in 2023, the procuratorial organs carried out supervision and filing of cases, with a total of 145,000 cases being supervised, representing a significant increase over the previous year. More than 200,000 people were not arrested in accordance with the law if they did not constitute a crime or if there was insufficient evidence.
Furthermore, in 2023, supervision and investigation agencies filed nearly 100,000 cases, showing a significant increase over previous years. The criminal protest work of procuratorial organs across the country also increased steadily, with nearly 8,000 protests being filed according to the second-instance procedure and trial supervision procedure.
The press conference also highlighted a typical case where the Supreme People’s Procuratorate filed a protest in a criminal case of transporting drugs, ultimately leading to the defendant being sentenced to death after a retrial by the court.
Overall, the procuratorial organs in China are continuously updating their supervision concepts and mechanisms to improve the quality and efficiency of their work. The focus going forward will be on strengthening and standardizing the entire criminal prosecution process to ensure justice and fairness in the legal system.