On October 24, at the 246th press conference on the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic in Beijing, Pan Xuhong, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and spokesman, announced the news that a number of people involved in the epidemic had been criminally filed in three typical cases. The six people who were criminally filed included Chen Moulin and Liu Moumin, who returned to Beijing from Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia after returning to Beijing from a tour of Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia, neither reported their itinerary, nor did they go to the hospital for treatment after fever, but also bought medicines on their own, and also invited friends to play cards at home, resulting in the expansion of the epidemic, including The heads of the two pharmacies that illegally sold drugs to the two people, Yang Mou and Wang Mouxian, as well as Li Mouquan and Zhang Mourong, who climbed over the guardrail and tried to escape during the community sealing.
For individuals who do not cooperate with the epidemic prevention and control policies and pose a risk of the spread of the epidemic, criminal filing is undoubtedly a very severe way to deal with it. Beijing's measures not only reflect the firm determination of relevant departments to strictly control the risk of the spread of the new crown epidemic, but also highlight the authoritative position of laws and regulations related to the prevention and control of infectious diseases.
Image source: Beijing Daily client
Looking back, there have been many precedents for pursuing criminal responsibility for individuals who violate the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases or local public health management regulations. However, in horizontal comparison, Beijing's approach is still very strict. In previous cases, most of those who were held criminally responsible were those who deliberately confronted and evaded epidemic prevention work in the links of circulation and isolation, directly causing the spread of the virus, and Chen Moulin and Liu Moumin, who were criminally filed this time, belonged to this category. In contrast, such acts as illegal drug sales and disobedience to community closed management, in the previous news, most of them will only be punished by industry and commerce, administration, and public security, and less will rise to the level of criminal filing.
In China's judicial practice, "blending leniency with severity" is one of the basic criminal policies, which constitutes a judicial behavior guide for punishing crimes, protecting human rights, and promoting the correct implementation of the law. The connotation of the criminal policy of blending leniency with severity is to distinguish between the severity and severity of criminal offenses, to treat them differently, and to ensure that when leniency is lenient, when severe is severe, it conforms to the principle of proportionality between crime, responsibility, and punishment. In the prevention and control of the epidemic, it is also necessary to deal with all kinds of behaviors that do not cooperate with epidemic prevention policies and are suspected of violating the law and committing crimes.
To determine whether a case is "lenient" or "strict", it is necessary to analyze specific issues according to the social environment and actual situation. In view of some practices that are "lenient or severe" in the nature of the law, leniency or severity depends not only on the actions of the parties and their consequences, but also on the needs of the epidemic prevention and control situation, as well as the demonstration effect of specific disciplinary measures taken by relevant departments.
On the evening of June 7, 2021, at the nucleic acid testing point in Taoyuan Community in Zhongshan East District, Guangdong Province, volunteers and medical staff stood on the front line of "anti-epidemic" together. Image source: People's Vision
In this round of the epidemic, in just a few days, Beijing has found a number of local confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia, which has brought severe challenges to the safety of epidemic prevention in the capital. Prior to this, the "zero new" state of confirmed cases in Beijing has been maintained for a long time, and the "epidemic prevention barrier" has been broken at this time, bringing great losses, and also made the public deeply realize that the awareness of epidemic prevention cannot be relaxed for a moment.
In this case, there was such a ridiculous thing as "fever patients playing mahjong to spread the virus" in Changping District, and the people who caused the risk undoubtedly made great subjective mistakes and deserved to be investigated for criminal responsibility. At the same time, the criminal filing of the case against the person in charge of the pharmacy who sold drugs illegally and the person who climbed over the guardrail is also to send a warning signal to the whole society: under any circumstances, we must not take chances, feel that their violations will not cause any consequences, and will not be severely prosecuted, so they are unscrupulous.
At present, Chinese society has made great efforts to limit the spread of the virus to a controllable range and maintain a safe and stable social situation. This valuable achievement is inseparable from the effective implementation of a series of epidemic prevention policies. The "failure" of the defense line of the epidemic prevention policy on any individual may cause serious consequences that individuals cannot afford. To this end, it is of great exemplary significance to strictly punish those suspected of violating the law and committing crimes in specific cases. Through this incident, the public should also bear in mind that no matter when and where we are, we should earnestly fulfill the responsibility of epidemic prevention on our shoulders. Only by strictly abiding by laws and regulations and following the guidelines of epidemic prevention policies can we maintain the hard-won good situation.
Source: China Youth Daily client