China News Service, September 5th. According to the official WeChat news of the Supreme People's Court, in recent years, under the strong crackdown and strict prevention of the public security organs and cultural relics administrative departments, the trend of cultural relic crimes has been effectively curbed; however, driven by huge profits, cultural relic crimes still occur from time to time. occurred, and new situations and new problems emerged, which plagued the practice of handling cases.

In view of this, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage jointly formulated the "Opinions on Several Issues concerning Handling Criminal Cases Obstructing the Administration of Cultural Relics" (Gongtong Zi [2022] No. 18, hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") , published on September 5, 2022.

  The "Opinions" emphasize the importance of punishing cultural relic crimes and strengthening cultural relic protection in accordance with the law, requiring people's courts, people's procuratorates, public security organs, and cultural relic administrative departments at all levels to punish and effectively prevent cultural relic crimes in accordance with the law, and effectively protect the safety of national cultural heritage.

The main contents of the Opinions are as follows:

  The first is to further clarify the identification of relevant acts that hinder the management of cultural relics.

The "Opinions" clarify that the robbery of ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs contained in immovable cultural relics such as ancient buildings and cave temples shall be investigated for the crime of robbery of ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs if it conforms to the provisions of Article 328 of the Criminal Law criminal responsibility, and clarified the criteria for identifying “multiple robbery and excavation”.

In response to the attempted theft of immovable cultural relics by destructive means, which constitutes other cultural relic crimes at the same time, the "Opinions" clearly choose one felony for punishment.

The "Opinions" also based on the practice of handling cases, made guiding provisions on the determination of "knowingly" in the crime of covering up and concealing the proceeds of crime and "for profit" in the crime of reselling cultural relics.

  The second is to further standardize the identification, appraisal and evaluation procedures for the cultural relics involved.

The "Opinions" clarifies that whether the cultural relics involved belong to specific categories of immovable cultural relics such as ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs, whether they have historical, artistic, and scientific value, and the degree of damage and value impact of the relevant actions on the cultural relics, can all be determined. and appraisal and appraisal, and requires appraisal and appraisal reports to be issued in accordance with the procedures and formats specified in the Administrative Measures for Appraisal and Appraisal of Cultural Relics Involved in Cases.

  The third is to further clarify the jurisdiction of cultural relic crime cases.

According to the "Opinions", the crime sites of cultural relic crimes include not only the places where tools are prepared, the places for exploration, and the places for robbery and excavation, but also the places where the cultural relics involved are actually obtained, hidden, transferred, processed, and stored. Jurisdiction problems of "from things and cases".

At the same time, in order to help clarify the facts and improve the efficiency of case handling, the "Opinions" also stipulates the joint handling of criminal cases of obstructing the management of cultural relics.

  The fourth is to further implement the criminal policy of combining leniency with strictness.

The "Opinions" stipulate that those who play a major role in a joint crime can be identified as the principal culprit in accordance with the law, and the network of cultural relic crimes can be cracked down in a whole chain; those who have illegal records of cultural relics or criminal records and state staff who commit related crimes can be punished severely as appropriate; Those who have surrendered, performed meritorious service, pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, etc., shall be dealt with leniently in accordance with the law.

At the same time, the "Opinions" also require the connection of executions to be done well to comprehensively crack down on cultural relics violations and crimes.

  In the next step, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will guide local people's courts, people's procuratorates, public security organs and cultural relics administrative departments to strictly implement the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law, the Cultural Relics Protection Law and the "Opinions" , accurately grasp the policy requirements, standardize the case handling procedures, effectively prevent and combat cultural relic crimes, and effectively protect the safety of national cultural heritage.