BEIJING: China’s top procuratorate demanded prosecutors nationwide on Wednesday continue intensified efforts against online crimes after seeing rapid growth of such offenses in recent years, including many related to the novel coronavirus.
The number of people detained for suspected epidemic-related offenses has reached about five times as many as those who had been accused of disturbing prevention and control efforts during the outbreak of SARS in 2003, according to Miao Shengming, a senior official with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
“Offenses online have been a prominent problem and have lead to an increase of cases during the COVID-19 outbreak,” he said. “Those using the internet to defraud, produce or sell fake goods and falsify information made up a large proportion of the cases this time.”
As of Tuesday, 3,275 people have been detained for possible crimes related to COVID-19, of whom 2,281 have been taken to courts for trials, according to the SPP.
Miao also said that more than 105,000 people were charged with online crimes from 2018 to 2019, up about 95 percent year-on-year, spurring the need for prosecutors across the country to make fighting online offenses a priority.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
