Severe punishment of corruption by applying severe punishments at the right time
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the anti-corruption struggle has achieved an overwhelming victory, but we must clearly understand that the anti-corruption struggle is a long-term, complex, and arduous task.
To further advance the fight against corruption, we must continue to maintain a high-pressure posture, to maintain a zero-tolerance attitude, an undiminished determination to fight ills with strong medicine, an undiminished courage to scrape the bones and treat drugs, and a strict punishment standard.
General Secretary Xi Jinping once preached that our determination to punish corruption cannot be shaken in the slightest, and that punishment cannot be softened.
"Punishing one evil is all evil." Lai Xiaomin was sentenced to death in the case of bribery, corruption, and bigamy, which fully demonstrates the central government's unrelenting determination and thunderous methods to punish corruption, and also fully reflects the judicial organs' use of rule of law to severely punish corruption Determination and confidence.
In the process of coordinating and advancing the rule of law in an all-round way, we must correctly use the rule of law thinking, and emphasize the use of strategic thinking, systematic thinking and other scientific methods to improve the level of the rule of law.
In the process of realizing the rule of law in criminal law, especially in the process of punishment of duty crimes, insisting on statutory crimes and punishments and being good at applying the policy of combining leniency and strictness has always been the practice of judicial organs for a long time.
This concept requires us to judge the situation, correctly analyze the subjective malignancy of a specific criminal and the social harm of his behavior, and then, in accordance with the provisions of the criminal law, determine the crime and the degree of harm to the society according to the criminal facts, the nature of the crime, the circumstances of the crime and the degree of harm to the society. Penalties appropriate for the crime and the criminal responsibility assumed.
Only in this way can Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law be concretely grasped and implemented in the field of criminal justice.
When it comes to the punishment of duty crimes, lenient and strict are also an organic and unified whole, and the two complement each other. It is necessary to stand on the strategic height of the anti-corruption struggle, use systematic thinking, fully understand, fully grasp, and fully implement the leniency and strict policy. It is necessary to prevent only strictness and negligence of lenient, and to prevent only lenient but ignorance of strictness. For duty criminals with extremely serious crimes, severe punishments up to the death penalty must be firmly applied.
Especially in key areas and key positions related to the overall development and national security, such as the financial field, precise punishment is required to deter crime.
The first paragraph of Article 383 of the Criminal Law stipulates that anyone who accepts a particularly large amount of bribes and causes particularly heavy losses to the interests of the country and the people shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or death, and property confiscated.
At the same time, the 2015 Criminal Law Amendment (9) added the fourth paragraph, that is, if the death sentence is sentenced to suspended execution, the people's court can also decide at the same time to reduce the death sentence to life imprisonment after the two-year suspended death sentence expires according to the circumstances of the crime. Life imprisonment without commutation or parole.
In line with the criminal policy of “reserving the death penalty, strictly controlling and applying the death penalty with caution”, on June 16, 2016, the Intermediate People’s Court of Anyang City, Henan Province held a public hearing of the first instance of Bai Enpei, former vice chairman of the National People’s Congress Environment and Resources Protection Committee, who accepted bribes and In the case of a huge amount of property whose source is unknown, he was sentenced to death for taking bribes with a two-year reprieve. At the same time, it was decided in accordance with the law that after the two-year reprieve of the death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, life imprisonment without commutation or parole was allowed. A reasonable balance between careful use of the death penalty and severe punishment of corruption.
From this first life imprisonment case, until recently, the Intermediate People’s Court of Qingyang City, Gansu Province pronounced that Lei Zhiqiang, the principal of the Gansu Rural Credit Cooperative Union, was sentenced to death for taking bribes with a two-year reprieve. Life imprisonment is applied to them, sentence reduction or parole is not allowed. Starting from the concept of cautious use of the death penalty, China’s judicial organs adhere to the policy of combining leniency and strictness, and declared the application of life imprisonment in a number of serious duty crime cases, thereby reducing the use of the death penalty and severely punishing Corruption crimes systematically realize the organic unity of political, legal and social effects.
However, for serious corruption crimes, the death penalty clause has not been dormant, let alone asleep. It has always been the most important sword in our criminal law arsenal. It hangs high on the head of corrupt criminals and exerts the most deterrent effect. Prevention and general prevention effects.
Cautious use of the death penalty does not mean that the death penalty is unnecessary. According to the relevant judicial interpretations of the "two highs", the amount of corruption and bribery is particularly huge, the crime is particularly serious, the social impact is particularly bad, and the country and the people's interests are particularly severely damaged. death penalty.
The case of Lai Xiaomin has become the largest bribery case among the duty crime cases accepted by the people's courts since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The amount of crime, the degree of harm, the circumstances of the crime, the methods of crime, etc. are shocking and shocking.
In this case, the defendant’s crime of accepting bribes was extremely large, the circumstances were extremely serious, and the subjective malignancy was extremely deep.
The total amount of bribery received was 1.788 billion yuan. Among the 22 crimes of accepting bribes, 3 cases of bribery crimes amounted to more than 200 million yuan, 400 million yuan, and 600 million yuan respectively, and 6 cases of bribery crimes all amounted to more than 40 million yuan.
At the same time, Lai Xiaomin also has serious punishments such as actively soliciting bribes and providing assistance for others' job adjustments, promotion, and accepting property; especially, in criminal activities, Lai Xiaomin used the power of the person in charge of a state-owned financial enterprise to determine major company projects in violation of regulations and intervene in specific details. The project seeks improper benefits for others, endangers national financial security and financial stability, and has extremely bad social impact.
What’s more serious is that Lai Xiaomin is lawless and extremely greedy. Most of the crimes occurred after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. They are typical of non-convergence, refusal to close their hands, and commit crimes against the wind, and have caused the country and the people’s interests to be particularly severe Losses and crimes are extremely serious. Although they have significant meritorious service, the facts, nature, circumstances and the degree of harm to the society of the crime of bribery are not enough to be punished with lenient punishment and must be severely punished.
In this regard, the people's courts have no mercy against them, and resolutely apply the death penalty, which is well-founded in law, fully conforms to legal provisions, conforms to policy grasp, and conforms to the requirements of social justice, and will certainly play a positive role in the fight against corruption.
The anti-corruption struggle is only ongoing, but not completed.
Only by continuously severely punishing corruption, severely cracking down on duty crimes, thoroughly curing chronic corruption, and resolutely removing body tumors, can we consolidate and develop this hard-won overwhelming victory, and can truly solve the problem of not daring to be corrupt or unable to be corrupted from the system. Corruption, not wanting to be corrupt.
The judiciary’s scientific and reasonable application of the death penalty to serious duty crimes not only reflects the differential treatment in the application of the death penalty, reflects our philosophy that all corruption must be countered, and eliminates evil, but also fully embodies the central government’s thunderous means and iron determination in fighting corruption. , Resolute decision and decision-making responsibility.
The application of this penalty is tantamount to the sound of thunderbolt for criminals and criminals. It will urge those who have committed serious crimes to give up their luck in seeking mercy, and will also forcefully promote the in-depth anti-corruption struggle.
Lin Wei, Vice President, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor of University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences