China's top court is mulling a judicial interpretation
to the criminal law to cope with the spiraling number of cases involving new
drugs, a senior court official has said.
Gao Guijun, presiding judge of the Fifth Criminal Court under the Supreme
People's Court, said a new judicial interpretation detailing the penalties for
smuggling, producing and transporting new drugs will be soon announced.
An interpretation made in 2000 spells out penalties only for traditional
drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
However, a series of crackdowns
since 2005 has sharply cut down domestic heroin supply, forcing many addicts to
turn to substitutes such as methadone and ketamine, Gao said.
"The court is working with the Ministry of Public Security, which has to
analyze the contents of new drugs, to standardize the penalties," he said,
without giving a timetable for the new interpretation.
Gao made the remarks at a press conference on the eve of the International
Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is today.
He said the top court is also unifying the standards for drug-related death
penalties.
Some provincial people's courts in Southwest China, where drug abuse is
rampant, were empowered to approve death penalties in drug-related cases before
the top court was given back the right to review all death sentences this year.
Of the 55,671 criminals sentenced in 49,270 drug-related cases across the
country during the 17 months up to May, nearly two in five received "heavy
punishment" ranging from more than five years' jail to the death penalty.
Ni Shouming, spokesman for the court, said drug
kingpins were using people such as pregnant women and new
mothers for drug trafficking in an attempt to evade suspicion or hoping for
lighter sentences.
The women are often well-trained in resisting police investigation, give fake
addresses and names, or just pretend to be mute.
Also, the country increasingly faces the pressure of international drug gangs
spreading their tentacles in the country, he said.
While drug smuggling from the "Golden Triangle" area - which borders Myanmar,
Laos and Thailand - is decreasing because of intense scrutiny, more cases have
been detected in recent years of drugs flowing in through Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region from the "Golden Crescent" region, which encompasses the
mountain valleys of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Criminals from both home and abroad form a production, sale, transport and
smuggling chain. China has become not only a conduit for international smuggling
but also a major place of consumption," said Ni.
(China Daily 06/26/2007
page 1)
Vocabulary:
crackdown: 打击
drug kingpin：毒枭
（英语点津 Linda 编辑）
