On April 20, the Lingcheng District People's Court in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, issued a criminal ruling allowing prosecutors to withdraw their indictment against two defendants, Duan Jiguo and Wang Meilan, who bought and sold artificially bred parrots and other animals.
The reason for the withdrawal of the case by the parrot prosecution raised by the parties involved in the case was that in the course of the litigation, the law and judicial interpretation changed, and the defendant should not be held criminally responsible.
On April 20, the Lingcheng District People's Court issued a criminal ruling allowing the prosecution to withdraw the case information obtained by the Red Star News reporter, which previously alleged that in November 2019, Duan Jiguo sold 46 rare and endangered wild animals and parrots under national key protection to Wang Meilan and others without the permission of the forestry authorities; from August 2018 to November 2019, Wang Meilan did not have permission from the forestry authorities. Violated the law in the acquisition of 38 monk parrots and suntail parrots. After artificial breeding, 39 monk parrots were sold to others. The Lingcheng prosecutors believe that the parrot series involved in the case is included in the protected animals of Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; the two should be investigated for criminal liability for the crime of illegally purchasing and selling rare and endangered wild animals. At the opening of the case, the Lingcheng procuratorate pointed out that according to the 2000 Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases involving the Destruction of Wildlife Resources, the illegal acquisition and sale of more than 10 parrots (whole-family species) of rare and endangered wild animals is particularly serious and should be sentenced to more than ten years of fixed-term imprisonment; The sentence for both persons shall be up to the statutory sentence. In December 2021, the two were sentenced to three years in prison each for "endangering precious and endangered wildlife."
In December 2021, after Duan Jiguo and Wang Meilan were sentenced to three years in prison for "endangering precious and endangered wild animals" and sentenced to three years in the first instance, Duan Jiguo and Wang Meilan both appealed, arguing that the sentence was too heavy. On February 17, 2022, the Texas Intermediate Court ruled that the case was remanded to the Lingcheng Court for a new trial. After Duan Jiguo appealed, Xiao Zhi'e, a lawyer at Beijing Huatian Law Firm, served as his defender. At that time, a new judicial interpretation on wildlife-related criminal cases had not yet been promulgated. In a previous interview with the media, Xiao Zhi'e pointed out that according to the accounts of the parties' families, the two parties were meticulous and caring for the breeding of parrots involved in the case; in essence, their artificial breeding behavior expanded the number of parrot populations, protected the diversity of wildlife resources, and identified them as criminal acts that were socially harmful. On April 7, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in handling Criminal Cases of Destruction of Wildlife Resources, which clearly stated that in criminal prosecution, it is not appropriate to treat cases involving artificial breeding of wild animals the same as cases involving the natural growth and reproduction of wild animals in the wild environment, especially for "artificial breeding technology is mature, has become a scale, and is bought, sold and transported as pets", and generally not treated as a crime.
The artificially bred parrots involved in the case are another case involving artificial breeding of wild animals that has been applied in judicial practice after the prosecution withdrew the lawsuit in the "Man Online Purchase Tortoise Case Sentenced to Three Years" in Yucheng, Dezhou on April 18. On April 20, Duan Jiguo's defense lawyer Xiao Zhi'e told Red Star News that after the lingcheng procuratorate and the lingcheng court were promulgated in the new judicial interpretation, they carefully listened to the defender's legal opinions and promptly withdrew the lawsuit, which is not only a correction of the original first-instance guilty verdict, but also the implementation of the new judicial interpretation and related spirit, and it is also the practice of the basic principles of criminal law that criminal law is convicted and criminal responsibility is appropriate. "Duan Jiguo was detained for 565 days, and Wang Meilan was detained for 612 days." Xiao Zhi'e said that at present, the two parties to the case have just received the court's ruling to withdraw the lawsuit and are busy with family affairs, and have not yet seriously considered the matter of state compensation, and will make specific consideration and plans after formally receiving the Lingcheng Procuratorate's "Decision on Non-Prosecution".
Red Star News reporter Wang Jianqiang