CBCGDF suggests to Hunan Procuratorate and Jiangsu Jintan Procuratorate that pangolins should be taken as state-level protected animals to investigate the criminal responsibility of suspects according to law
2019/3/13 19:19:00 本站

Recently, after receiving the announcement of the People's Procuratorate of Xinshao County of Hunan Province on the civil public interest litigation for pangolin protection, the CBCGDF decided to prosecute and sent official letters to the People's Procuratorate of Hunan Province and the People's Procuratorate of Jintan, Jiangsu Province, respectively, suggesting that more than 100 suspects involved in the cases of illegal acquisition, transportation, sale of precious and endangered wildlife and their products to investigate their related criminal responsibility according to the law.

 

It is understood that in the case of 4.26 "extraordinarily large illegal acquisition, transportation, the sale of precious and endangered wildlife and its products, which was uncovered in Hunan last year. 129 criminal suspects were detained, 216 pangolin entities were seized, and more than 50,000 pangolins were illegally traded. In another case of pangolin in Jiangsu, a total of 11 pangolins were sold by 21 suspects.

 

The reason why CBCGDF proposed pangolin as a national level protected animal is that the 2016 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (hereinafter referred to as CITES) has listed all eight pangolins in Appendix I, which implements strict protection and prohibits international trade. China joined the CITES Convention in 1980. As a party to the CITES Convention, China has a strict obligation to protect species.

 

In Article 1 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Questions Concerning the Specific Application of Law in Criminal Cases of Destruction of Wildlife Resources (hereinafter referred to as the Interpretation of the Supreme Law), there are "precious and endangered wildlife" stipulated in Article 341, paragraph 1, of the Criminal Law, including the first and second-level protected animals listed of main protected wildlife of the State and the endangered animals listed of main Wildlife in appendices I and II to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the above-mentioned species domesticated and bred.

 

Similarly, Article 10 of the Interpretation of the Supreme Law also stipulates that the criteria for determining "serious" and "especially serious" are illegally hunted, killed, acquired, transported and sold, referring to Articles 3, 4 of the present Interpretation and the countries listed in the Appendix II to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The criteria for the identification of wildlife under secondary protection shall be implemented; if the wildlife under primary and secondary protection of the same country does not belong to the same species, the criteria for the identification of it shall be applied with reference to the criteria for the identification of wildlife under national primary and secondary protection of the same family.

 

The relevant legal interpretations of the two supreme laws mentioned above indicate that the rare wildlife listed in Appendices I and II of CITES should be treated with reference to the state's main protection of wildlife at the first and second levels. As an implementing country of CITES, China should treat protected species in Appendix I of CITES according to the main protected animals at the national level.

 

In addition, although the protection level of pangolins in China is still the second-level national protected wildlife, the relevant state departments have decided to upgrade the protection level of pangolins to the first-level national main protected wildlife corresponding to Appendix 1 of CITES in the near future.

 

Therefore, the CBCGDF suggests that procuratorates at all levels should treat pangolins as state-level protected animals in their criminal judgments in relevant cases, take full account of the "particularly serious circumstances" of related cases, investigate the criminal responsibility of suspects according to law, severely punish illegal crimes and safeguard public interests.


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/7917.html


By / Li Xue