China's top court is mulling a judicial interpretation to the
criminal law to cope with the spiraling number of cases involving
new drugs, a senior court official has said.
Gao Guijun, presiding judge of the Fifth Criminal Court under
the Supreme People's Court, said a new judicial interpretation
detailing the penalties for smuggling, producing and transporting
new drugs will be soon announced.
An interpretation made in 2000 spells out penalties only for
traditional drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
However, a series of crackdowns since 2005 has sharply cut down
domestic heroin supply, forcing many addicts to turn to substitutes
such as methadone and ketamine, Gao said.
"The court is working with the Ministry of Public Security,
which has to analyze the contents of new drugs, to standardize the
penalties," he said, without giving a timetable for the new
interpretation.
Gao made the remarks at a press conference on the eve of the
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which
is today.
He said the top court is also unifying the standards for
drug-related death penalties.
Some provincial courts in southwest China, where drug abuse is
rampant, were empowered to approve death penalties in drug-related
cases before the top court was given back the right to review all
death sentences this year.
Of the 55,671 criminals sentenced in 49,270 drug-related cases
across the country during the 17 months up to May, nearly two in
five received "heavy punishment" ranging from more than five years'
jail to the death penalty.
Ni Shouming, spokesman for the court, said drug kingpins were
using people such as pregnant women and new mothers for drug
trafficking in an attempt to evade suspicion or hoping for lighter
sentences.
These women are often well-trained in resisting police
investigation, give fake addresses and names, or just pretend to be
mute.
Also, the country increasingly faces the pressure of
international drug gangs spreading their tentacles in the country,
he said.
While drug smuggling from the "Golden Triangle" area - which
borders Myanmar, Laos and Thailand - is decreasing because of
intense scrutiny, more cases have been detected in recent years of
drugs flowing in through Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from the
"Golden Crescent" region, which encompasses the mountain valleys of
Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Criminals from both home and abroad form a production, sale,
transport and smuggling chain. China has become not only a conduit
for international smuggling but also a major place of consumption,"
said Ni.
Seven?traffickers sentenced to
death
The Supreme People's Court announced yesterday that it had
approved the death penalty for seven drug traffickers.
Three principals of a cross-border drug crime, Yan Hanlong, Li
Zibin and Xiong Shiwei, were sentenced to death for the "extremely
huge amount" of 42 kg of heroin they smuggled from Myanmar.
Wang Guangyou organized heroin trafficking by getting villagers
in Guizhou Province to transport 806 grams of heroin from Kunming,
Yunnan Province.
Also sentenced to death was Zhang Hong'an, who had long been
engaged in cross-border drug crimes as the leader of a trafficking
gang, an SPC statement said.
The other two death penalties were given to Long Congbin, who
had served imprisonment for drug trafficking before his latest
conviction, and Guo Shichen, who was sentenced to death for trade
of new types of drugs such as ecstasy and "magu", a Thai word for a
stimulant drug that is a combination of methamphetamine and
caffeine.
Ni Shouming, spokesman for the Supreme People's Court, said the
top court will show no leniency in handing down the maximum penalty
to kingpins of drug trafficking gangs and those who participate in
cross-border drug crimes.
(China Daily June 26, 2007)