China's network on December 24 (reporter Peng Yao) The Supreme People's Procuratorate held a press conference on the 23rd to "actively perform the function of civil support and prosecution to protect the legitimate rights and interests of special groups according to law", Feng Xiaoguang, member of the procuratorial committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and director of the Sixth Procuratorate, introduced that from January to September 2021, procuratorial organs across the country accepted 41,966 civil support prosecution cases, an increase of 87.9% year-on-year; support for prosecution of 29,303 cases, an increase of 70.1% year-on-year.
Procuratorial organs support the prosecution system as an important part of the people's procuratorial system. Article 15 of the Civil Procedure Law stipulates: "Organs, social groups, enterprises and public institutions may support the injured unit or individual in filing a lawsuit with the people's court for acts that harm the civil rights and interests of the state, collectives or individuals. "Where units or individuals whose civil rights and interests have been infringed have not achieved the minimum goal of safeguarding rights after the relevant administrative organs, social groups, and other departments have performed their duties, and have the will to prosecute and protect their rights, but are unable or afraid to file a lawsuit due to weak litigation capacity, the procuratorial organs may support them in filing a civil lawsuit with the people's court." For a long time, through the civil support prosecution system, procuratorial organs have provided pro bono legal assistance to special groups seeking litigation relief, effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of special groups, highlighting the advantages and humanistic care of China's judicial system, and promoting the realization of equality of litigation rights in the substantive sense.
On December 23, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a press conference on "Actively Performing Civil Support prosecution Functions and Protecting the Lawful Rights and Interests of Special Groups in Accordance with Law". Image source: Supreme People's Procuratorate
Feng Xiaoguang introduced that the target of support for prosecution belongs to a special group. The essence of supporting prosecution is to support the injured unit or individual to sue, especially to support special groups to be able to obtain remedies through the exercise of the right of action, and to ensure the substantive equality of the right of action of the two parties. The parties in this batch of 5 cases involve special groups such as intellectually disabled people, the elderly, migrant workers in cities, and women who have been subjected to domestic violence, and their litigation ability is weak, and they cannot or dare not independently file a lawsuit to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. Procuratorial organs support prosecution in accordance with the law, reflecting the protection of the rights and interests of special groups and demonstrating judicial humanistic care.
What specific help can the procuratorate provide in supporting the prosecution of special groups? Jiang Yaofei, a third-level senior procurator of the Sixth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that if the procuratorial organs provide legal advice to the parties on legal issues such as the preparation of the indictment, and the parties are unable to collect evidence on their own, the procuratorial organs may assist them in collecting and determining the specific litigation claims of the parties in accordance with the law, proving that the original defendant is related to the facts disputed in the case, and meeting the statutory requirements for prosecution. Around the parties' claims, on the basis of the ascertained facts of the case, the procuratorial organs drafted a written opinion in support of the indictment in accordance with law and transferred it to the people's court.
After a decision is made to submit an opinion in support of the prosecution, the procuratorial organ coordinates with the judicial administrative department to provide legal aid to the parties, and the legal aid personnel participate in the litigation as the parties' retained representatives. For cases of great social or legal significance, the procuratorial organ may appear in court to read out an opinion in support of the indictment in the people's court.
Feng Stressed that supporting prosecution is not a "substitute" for prosecution. The procuratorate's support for prosecution is not an exercise of the right of action on behalf of the parties and cannot initiate litigation proceedings independently. Different from the performance of public prosecution functions, civil support for prosecution is generally based on the application of the parties; the procuratorial organs assist the parties in collecting evidence around the statutory conditions for prosecution, rather than only collecting evidence favorable to one party; except in cases of great social significance or legal significance, the procuratorial organs generally do not attend the courtroom, and may read out the opinion in support of the prosecution when appearing in court, but do not participate in other trial activities such as presenting evidence and cross-examining evidence. The parties enjoy complete procedural rights and are free to dispose of them. Where a party withdraws an indictment, the support for prosecution procedure ends on its own, and the procuratorate does not need to withdraw its opinion in support of the prosecution.
![NetEase Thunderfire sued the game operator, and the other party was frozen for more than 5.73 million yuan[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)