China to cease criminal charges for breaching Covid-19 response measures
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China is no longer pursuing criminal charges against those found violating mask and social distancing mandates.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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BEIJING – China will no longer slap criminal charges on those violating Covid-19 “prevention and control measures or provisions on frontier health and quarantine” starting Sunday, according to a circular released by the authorities on Saturday.
“Relevant cases in the process of handling should be handled in a timely and prompt manner, in accordance with provisions of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law,” the circular said.
The circular was jointly released by the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate and three other departments.
It also said that suspects and defendants in custody for violating Covid-19 health restrictions “should be released… and properties involved in the cases that are sealed up, seized, or frozen should be freed”.
But criminal acts – including harming medics and other frontline health workers, disrupting medical orders, seriously obstructing Covid-19 control at key institutions such as aged care facilities and social welfare institutions, counterfeiting and selling epidemic-related drugs and detection reagents – will be severely punished according to law.
On Sunday, China will remove Covid-19 from its list of quarantinable infectious diseases. XINHUA
