China News Service, May 17th. According to the Supreme Procuratorate website, from January to March 2021, prosecutors nationwide prosecuted 1,285 people for illegal fishing of aquatic products, a year-on-year increase of two times.
Among them, the procuratorial organs of 14 provinces (municipalities) in the Yangtze River Basin prosecuted 935 people, accounting for 72.76% of the total number, a year-on-year increase of 3.5 times.
In handling judicial cases, the procuratorial organs adhere to the criminal policy of combining leniency and strictness. They not only pay attention to the strictness, and punish the crimes of illegal fishing of aquatic products with serious circumstances in accordance with the law, and play a deterrent effect; they also pay attention to the punishment of first offenders and occasional offenders with minor crimes. Criminals, etc. shall not be arrested or prosecuted in accordance with the law, and at the same time, through public hearings, public announcements, etc., a case can be handled, warnings, and social education, to achieve the unity of political, social, and legal effects in case handling, and to serve to protect the Yangtze River Ten with practical actions. Fishing is banned for the year.
1. The characteristics and trends of illegal fishing of aquatic products in the Yangtze River Basin
First, prosecutors in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River prosecute more crimes of this type.
In the first quarter, the procuratorial organs of 9 provinces (municipalities) in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River prosecuted 692 people for illegal fishing of aquatic products, accounting for 74.01%.
Among them, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, and Hunan 4 provinces prosecuted 485 people for this type of crime, accounting for 70.09% of the number of prosecutors in 9 provinces (cities).
Affected by geographical location and other factors, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are rich in fishery resources, especially the herring, grass carp, silver carp, and bighead carp known as the "four major home fish", which are important fishery resources in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and in lakes along the river.
In addition, due to the large demand for wild fish in the market, some lawbreakers took risks and carried out illegal fishing, which caused damage to the fishery resources of the Yangtze River.
Second, minor cases where non-custodial measures were applied before litigation accounted for a relatively large proportion.
In the first quarter of the Yangtze River Basin procuratorial organs accepted, reviewed and prosecuted the crimes of illegal fishing of aquatic products, 44.6% of them took non-custodial measures before prosecution, and 21% of them were not prosecuted in accordance with the law for minor crimes.
On the one hand, after the ten-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River began, the procuratorial organs insisted on strict punishment and "strike early and hit small ones". Some illegal fishing of aquatic products involved a small amount of fish, and the suspects were subjectively malignant and socially dangerous. Small, no need for detention; on the other hand, considering that some net fishing enthusiasts have insufficient understanding of the importance of “banning” in the Yangtze River, and they do not fully understand the legal requirements of illegal fishing of aquatic products “prohibited tools and methods”, the procuratorial organs Fully consider the specific circumstances of different cases in accordance with the law, insist on fewer arrests and be prudent in prosecution, and make decisions not to approve arrest or prosecute first offenders and sporadic offenders who voluntarily pleaded guilty, pleaded guilty, repaired fishery resources and have minor circumstances.
At the same time, it is recommended that the public security organs impose administrative penalties on those who fail to arrest or prosecute due to relatively minor crimes in order to prevent "one release."
The third is the emergence of a combination of criminal interests in production, supply and marketing in some crimes.
After some criminals catch aquatic products, they sell the catch to markets and restaurants, forming a profit chain of "fishing-purchasing-transport-sale" illegal catches.
For example, in the case of Zhang XX and other 10 people illegally fishing aquatic products, and Wu XX and other 10 people concealing and concealing their criminal proceeds handled by the Junshan District Procuratorate of Yueyang City, Hunan Province, the defendant Zhang XX and others were seeking illegal benefits. During the closed fishing season or in prohibited fishing areas such as the Xinqiang River waters of Dongting Lake, electric shocks and other methods forbidden by the state were repeatedly used to fish aquatic products, resulting in illegal profits of more than RMB 130,000.
The defendant Wu XX and others knew that the fish caught by Zhang XX and others were illegally caught aquatic products during the closed fishing season or in the restricted fishing zone, and they still purchased them and sold them to the defendant Jiang and others at an increased price.
After the acquisition, Jiang and others transported it to Chongqing and sold it for profit.
The procuratorial organs implemented a full chain of attacks, resolutely cut off the illegal fishing underground industry chain, and promoted the formation of a good atmosphere of "no fishing on the water, no sales in the market, no restaurants, and no food for the masses."
2. Make full use of procuratorial functions to protect the fishery resources of the Yangtze River
In response to the characteristics and trends of this type of crime, the procuratorial organ not only punishes illegal fishing in accordance with the law, but also promotes the comprehensive use of criminal, administrative, and economic means to promote social governance.
The first is to strengthen the top-level design and unify law enforcement and judicial standards.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate has successively issued the "Minutes of the Criminal Procuratorial Work Forum for Procuratorial Organs Handling Illegal Fishing in the Yangtze River Basin" and "Answers on Legal and Policy Issues Related to Prosecutors’ Handling of Illegal Fishing Cases in the Yangtze River Basin". The Ministry jointly formulated and issued the "Opinions on Punishing Illegal Fishing and Other Crimes in the Yangtze River Basin in accordance with the Law" to further clarify the crackdown standards and unify law enforcement and judicial standards.
In addition, the Supreme People's Procuratorate also issued typical cases of illegal fishing of aquatic products in the Yangtze River Basin to interpret the law and warn the society.
The second is to highlight the key points of the crackdown and adhere to the judicial concept of equal emphasis on crackdown and restoration.
Local procuratorial organs severely punish illegal fishing activities that are harmful to fishery resources such as the use of "electricity, drugs, bombing" or "extreme nets", as well as illegal fishing activities that are organized, grouped, and evil in nature. Focus on punishing the underground industrial chain of "fishing-purchase-transport-sales" and its organizers and main implementers.
At the same time, it pays more attention to practicing the concept of restorative justice, insists on “scratching with one hand, and repairing with the other”, and adopts various measures such as confiscation of illegal income, fines, and orders to bear ecological restoration costs for those who engage in illegal fishing for the purpose of seeking illegal benefits. Impose financial punishment.
The third is to strengthen communication and cooperation and build a diversified protection pattern.
Establish an integrated case handling model of criminal prosecution and public interest litigation, sort out, evaluate, and transfer public interest litigation clues while handling criminal cases, make full use of criminal case evidence to serve public interest litigation cases, and ensure that criminal strikes and public interest protection are seamlessly connected and promoted together.
At the same time, cross-regional cooperation between procuratorial organs is carried out to coordinate the handling of criminal cases involving illegal fishing of aquatic products across provinces.
In addition, procuratorial organs have also strengthened communication and cooperation with agricultural and rural areas, water conservancy, ecological environment, market supervision and management and law enforcement agencies, strengthened the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, and fully performed the procuratorial and supervision functions to prevent cases from not being moved or not being filed. , Substitute penalty for punishment.
In the first quarter, it was recommended that administrative law enforcement agencies transfer 31 suspected illegal fishing crimes, an increase of 82.4% from the fourth quarter of last year.
The fourth is to extend procuratorial functions and participate in comprehensive social governance.
Local procuratorial organs make full use of procuratorial recommendations to promote social governance, and issue procuratorial recommendations in accordance with the law to address the manufacturers and platforms that manufacture and sell prohibited fishing gear, and the management loopholes in the competent industry departments that sell wild aquatic products and catering establishments discovered in the handling of the case, and promote the realization of " The effect of “handling one case and managing one piece” promotes source governance.
For example, the Procuratorate of Huichuan District, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province found that there were many illegal sales of prohibited fishing tools in its jurisdiction, and issued procuratorial recommendations to the District Agriculture and Rural Bureau and the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau to supervise joint special law enforcement inspections.
The fifth is to strengthen law popularization and promote the "ban on arrest" of the Yangtze River to gain popular support.
All localities strictly implement the requirements of "Whoever enforces the law will spread the law", carry out multi-form and normalized propaganda about the ten-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, continuously raise the public's awareness of the protection of the ecological environment and fishery resources in the Yangtze River Basin, and promote the formation of the formation Willing to catch the social atmosphere.
The Yunnan Provincial Procuratorate held a press conference to release the "Inspection White Paper on Ecological Environment and Resource Protection in the Jinsha River Basin (Yunnan Section)", advocating the masses to actively participate in the protection of biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin.