Chinese judicial and procuratorial organs have upheld the rule of law in the country's fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, according to the work reports of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) delivered to the annual national legislative session on Monday. 

The SPC, working with other departments, has issued a number of guidelines on matters concerning epidemic response, including guidelines on crackdown on COVID-19 outbreak-related crimes, guidelines on fighting crimes of impairing frontier quarantine measures and guidelines on handling legal issues concerning the resumption of work and production, Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said while delivering the SPC's work report. 

The top court has made public 57 typical cases involving epidemic-related crimes and services for promoting the resumption of work and production, Zhou said. 

Chinese courts at all levels have concluded 2,736 epidemic-related cases, he noted, adding that "smart courts" using internet technologies played an important role during the outbreak, with 1.36 million cases filed online nationwide.

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Graphics: Highlights of China's SPC's and SPP's annual work reports

The report said Chinese courts will employ various judicial means to provide judicial guarantees for regular epidemic response and restoration of economic and social order. 

Efforts will be made to strengthen judicial response amid regular epidemic control to safeguard people's lives and health, according to the report. 

From February to April, Chinese procuratorial organs approved the arrest of 3,751 people in criminal cases related to COVID-19 and prosecuted 2,521 people, Procurator-General Zhang Jun said while delivering the SPP's work report. 

Meanwhile, the procuratorial organs handled 2,829 public interest litigation cases in areas such as the regulation of masks and other protective supplies, medical waste disposal and wildlife protection, Zhang noted.

The number of people prosecuted for severe violent crimes in China has dropped by an average annual rate of 4.8 percent over the past two decades, the SPP's work report showed. The figure plummeted from 162,000 in 1999 to 60,000 in 2019. 

Severe violent crimes include intentional homicide, rape, arson and others. 

The decline reflects the constantly improved public security in China, the report said. 

In the SPC's work report, Zhou highlighted the handling of the cases involving notorious gang leaders Sun Xiaoguo and Du Shaoping and their execution, stressing that justice has been upheld. 

Sun, a convict of multiple high-profile crimes such as rape, insulting women by forcible means, intentionally inflicting injury upon others and creating disturbances, was executed in southwest China's Yunnan Province in February. 

Du was executed in January for multiple crimes including murder. He was contracted to build a playground for a middle school in central China's Hunan Province in 2001. Du killed a staff member of the school due to disputes over the project and buried his remains under the playground in early 2003.

China prosecuted 50,800 people in 2019 for environment-related crimes including damaging the environment and smuggling imported waste, up 20.4 percent year-on-year, according to the SPP's work report. 

A total of 69,236 public interest litigations in the environmental domain were handled in 2019, up 16.7 percent, it said. 

Chinese procuratorates have also enhanced efficiency in handling letters from the public, the report showed. For the 491,829 letters received in 2019, the procuratorates were able to give feedback about who is handling the letters within seven days. 

Procuratorial agencies across the country offered replies on the handling process or results to 99.2 percent of all the letters within three months after the letters were received. 

Moreover, Chinese courts will further advance the modernization of judicial system and capacity, according to the SPC's work report. 

Reforms of the judicial accountability system and civil proceedings will be deepened, it said. Efforts will also be made to advance the building of smart courts and internet-based judicial work, it pledged. 

(With input from Xinhua)