Li Yuzhi Shi Zhaokun
Ancient cities, old streets, snack bars, many people like the smoke and fire of this ordinary alley. However, in this seemingly quiet town, a group of people made waves underground. They aimed at ancient pagodas in some counties in Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places, rented houses and opened restaurants nearby, pretended to do business during the day, and dug tunnels in the direction of the ancient pagoda at night in an attempt to find the underground palace and steal cultural relics.
Prosecuted by the Procuratorate of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, the Intermediate Court of Xianyang City sentenced the defendant Wei Yonggang and other 23 persons to 15 years to three years’ imprisonment and four suspended sentences for the crimes of stealing ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, and reselling cultural relics. Penalties ranging from years. Recently, the reporter interviewed the prosecutor handling this strange case.
Stolen golden coffin
Open a restaurant during the day and steal cultural relics late at night
Stealing three ancient towers and underground palaces to obtain dozens of precious cultural relics
The two major tributaries of the Yellow River, the Fen River and the Wei River, have deep water and thick soil, which gave birth to the splendid ancient civilization of the Chinese nation and also left a rich cultural heritage. But for a long time, many tomb robbers have been active in this area. They stretched out their hands to ancient tombs, murals, Buddha statues, and even developed into family and industrialized tomb robbers.
Wei Yonggang is one of them. The 52-year-old man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing ancient cultural relics by the Xinjiang County Court of Shanxi Province in 2004. After a reduction of his sentence, he was released in January 2011.
Less than half a year after his release, he returned to his old career. This time he aimed at the Qingfan Temple tower in Xingping City, Shaanxi Province, a neighboring province. The ancients built towers and often placed jewelry, Buddha statues, Buddhist scriptures and even relics on the top of the tower or in the underground palace. Wei Yonggang and others aimed at these cultural relics.
In July and August 2011, Wei Yonggang arranged for Zhao Xianhua (at large) to rent a private house not far from the Qingfan Temple in North Street, Xingping City, and arranged for the defendant Wei Shujun to use the "beating of pancakes" as a cover to find someone there. There was a hole in the house leading to the tower of Qingfan Temple, and finally a silver Ashoka tower, a stone tower, a copper coffin, a glass bottle (containing a suspected relic and a golden bone of Buddha) were stolen in the underground palace of the tower. Mani cakes, several copper coins and other cultural relics.
In November 2013, Wei Yonggang and Zhang Jianyong (deceased) came to Xunyi County, Shaanxi Province and conspired to rob the Thai Pagoda built in the fourth year of Jiayou in the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhang Jianyong rented a private house near Tai Pagoda. Under the cover of operating a steamed bun shop, he arranged for defendants Wei Guoxi, Wei Shujun, and Yun Anxin to dig holes and steal them. In the meantime, Wei Yonggang used theodolite to locate and guide the direction of digging. One month later, Taita Underground Palace was opened. Wei Yonggang and Zhang Jianyong stole the reclining Buddha statues, bronze coffins (with silver coffins inside), colored glass bottles (with suspected relics inside), small Buddha statues and other cultural relics in the underground palace and evacuated to commit the crime. on site.
In early 2015, Wei Yonggang and Liu Weizhong (at large) and Dong Zhongjie (deceased) discussed theft of Bin Pagoda (also known as Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda), a landmark building in Bin County (now Binzhou City) in Shaanxi Province. Wei Yonggang and others rented a facade room. After simple decoration, business licenses, and waiters were recruited, the restaurant named "Chuanxiang Restaurant" opened at the end of April of the same year. At around 10 o'clock every evening, Wei Guoxi and others dig a hole into Binta from the underground next to the hotel bathroom. At around 4 o'clock in the morning, the excavated soil is packed in plastic woven bags and transported away by car. In October, they opened up the Bin Ta Di Palace and stole precious cultural relics such as sarcophagi, golden coffins, silver coffins, copper coffins, gilt coffins, bronze mirrors, and suspected relics.
After investigation, the gang has stolen four first-class cultural relics including flower-patterned gilt and silver coffin, double-phoenix patterned gilt and silver coffin, stone pagoda, and Ashoka tower in these three crimes. In addition, there are also second-level, third-level, and general cultural relics Dozens of pieces.
Stolen Copper Coffin
The same means of committing crimes, similar life trajectories
Some of the defendants are inmates and some are relatives
According to Peng Tao, deputy director of the First Procuratorial Department of the Xianyang City Procuratorate who handled the case, in addition to the three successful cases mentioned above, the gang has four failed cases: the robbing of one of the two towers in Pucheng County, Shaanxi Province in 2011 Huiche Pagoda, Tauping Temple Pagoda in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province in 2013, Ashoka Pagoda in Dai County, Shanxi Province in 2014, and Dongguo Village Cemetery in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province in 2016. The first two cases were because after opening the underground palace, it was found that it had been stolen and there was nothing inside; the third case was that the underground palace was not found; the fourth case had a long time span, and the cultural relics were not dug up until Wei Yonggang and others were captured.
"The usual method of committing crimes by this group is to step on the spot first, then rent a house near the target, and use the snack bar as a cover to dig holes and steal cultural relics. After the crime is completed, the hole is filled with earth, and sometimes the snack bar will continue to operate for a period of time. Aftermath." Peng Tao introduced.
In January 2018, Bin County Public Security Bureau filed the case for investigation, and then transferred it to Bin County Procuratorate for review and prosecution. On January 22, 2019, Bin County Procuratorate reported the case to Xianyang City Procuratorate.
"During the review, we found that some details need to be further confirmed. For example, Wei Yonggang and others involved a long time in digging ancient pagodas, a large number of people, the source of funds before the crime, the destination of the stolen money after the sale of cultural relics, etc. were not clear enough. ; Whether the mobile phones of the persons involved in the case were retrieved, whether to conduct inspections, whether the communication records and case materials related to the case were found; how to deal with the criminal clues provided by Wei Yonggang..." Peng Tao told reporters that the case has experienced two Supplementary investigations. “In addition, we also require the public security organs to conduct a full survey of the crime scene, the place where the cultural relics involved in the case are stored, and the trading location. At the same time, in order to ensure the personal experience of handling the case, we also go to the crime scene to supervise the on-site inspection situation, so as to keep in mind There are counts."
The reporter checked the judgment of the case on the Chinese Judgment Documents website and found that 23 defendants were born in the 60s and 70s, and 3 of them were mainly engaged in organizing and directing excavations or reselling cultural relics; those born in the 1970s were mainly engaged in reselling cultural relics. , A small number of people participated in pirate excavation activities; there were 11 people born in the 1980s, all of whom were directly engaged in pirate excavation activities.
Most of the 23 defendants have primary school, junior high school or even illiterate education. 13 of them have criminal history, including crimes of stealing ancient cultural relics, intentional injury, robbery, kidnapping, theft, concealing and concealing criminal proceeds, etc. , They were sentenced for the first time around 2000.
This was confirmed by the prosecutor. According to Peng Tao, several criminal suspects and Wei Yonggang used to be inmates, and when Wei Yonggang chose accomplices, the focus was on the inmates he met during his sentence or relatives in the same village. "Considering whether it is a repeat offender and sentencing factors, we also urge the public security organs to actively obtain relevant judgment materials." Peng Tao said.
Stolen Sarcophagus
Handle cases objectively and impartially, protect rights according to law
Check the clues of the main criminal to determine his major meritorious service
The procuratorial organ insisted on an objective and fair stand in the process of handling the case, and carefully listened to the opinions of the defendant and his defender. For example, Wei Yonggang’s defender suggested that Wei Yonggang had confessed the plot after returning to the case and reported the criminal clues that Li and others had stolen and unearthed the Taiping Xingguo Temple Tower (a national key cultural relics protection unit) in the Yanhu District of Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. The procuratorial organs immediately verified this and urged the public security organs to investigate and verify.
"After learning that the Bin County Public Security Bureau transferred the clues to the Yuncheng police, we rushed to Yuncheng with the public security bureau's case handlers to understand the progress of the case and timely understand the investigation situation. We learned that Wei Yonggang’s clues played an important role in the cracking of the case. Role." Peng Tao told reporters that the court finally agreed to the prosecution’s sentencing recommendations, determined that Wei Yonggang had performed a major meritorious service, and was given a lighter punishment.
In the process of handling the case, the defendants such as Wei Yonggang voluntarily confessed their crimes truthfully, admitted the facts of the alleged crimes and were willing to accept punishment. On the basis of their voluntary confessions, the Xianyang City Procuratorate carefully distinguished all defendants who participated in the crime. He has listened to and carefully considered the opinions of the defender. The reporter learned from interviews that all defendants in the case recognized the sentencing recommendations made by the prosecutors and signed a confession of guilt and punished under the witness of the defender.
The reporter also learned during the interview that the defendant Yang Kunhui suffered from a cerebral infarction after being arrested and was inconvenient to move, so he could not go to Xianyang City to participate in court proceedings. In January this year, the Xianyang City Procuratorate and the Intermediate Court of Xianyang City drove to Yang Kunhui's home in Wenxi County, Shanxi Province, after communication and consultation.
The completion of the case is not the end of the procuratorial work. The 6 ancient pagodas stolen by Wei Yonggang and others are all national key cultural relics protection units, of which 3 were announced as national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council as early as 1988. In the process of handling this case, the procuratorial organs focused on extending procuratorial functions, using procuratorial suggestions to urge relevant departments to actively perform their duties, plug loopholes in cultural relics management, and promote comprehensive social governance.
"We instructed the Binzhou City Procuratorate to jointly hold a symposium with the cultural relics protection department to conduct in-depth discussions on the problems encountered in the protection of cultural relics." Peng Tao told reporters that the cultural relics protection department said that it will work together to explore the establishment of long-term protection of cultural relics. Mechanism to keep the traces of history together.
Reporter's Notes
The reporter found in the interview that the case of Wei Yonggang and others robbing ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs is not a particularly serious or complicated case, but the problems in this case are thought-provoking.
First, 13 of the 23 defendants in the case had criminal convictions, and 8 of them were under the age of 25 when they were first sentenced. The crimes involved were either robbery or kidnapping. Among these people, 7 were Wei Yonggang who met while serving his sentence in prison. In just three to five years after they were released after serving their sentence or commutation, they committed another crime under the mutual inducement of former inmates. The main criminal Wei Yonggang was sentenced for stealing the ancient pagoda for the first time, and half a year after he was released from prison, he stepped on the ancient pagoda again. Judging from this result, the scourge of prison has not really changed these people. From the perspective of transforming criminals into law-abiding citizens and allowing them to support themselves when they return to society, whether it is a penalty enforcement agency or a legal supervision agency, there is a long way to go.
Second, among the 6 ancient towers and 1 ancient tomb stolen in the case, there are 6 national key cultural relics protection units, 1 municipal cultural relics protection unit, and some are even local landmark cultural relics and historic sites. The cultural relics under key protection are still being stolen. On the one hand, the reason is that the criminals are pharaonic and secretive. On the other hand, it is also related to the weak protection of some grassroots cultural relics. In major cultural relic provinces such as Shanxi and Shaanxi, cultural relic sites are diverse and scattered throughout the countryside. Many of them rely on small amounts of compensation to hire local people to take care of them, and the technical defense methods are often insufficient. You must know that the destruction of cultural relics is irreversible, and it may not help to make up for it. It is more necessary to plan ahead.
The modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity is a very ambitious and problematic task. Whether it is to reform criminals or protect cultural relics, it is its due meaning, and all departments, including procuratorial organs, are required to guard the land. Responsible, take the initiative to perform duties, and consciously take responsibility.