China's Supreme1 People's Court (SPC) announced Wednesday that criminals committing sexual assault against children that are "extremely vile2 in nature" and cause "extremely severe consequences" will be sentenced to death with no leniency3.
中国最高人民法院周三宣布,对儿童进行性侵害且“犯罪性质、情节极其恶劣”、“后果极其严重”的罪犯将坚决依法判处死刑,绝不姑息。
The SPC published four typical cases concerning sex
offenses4 against children, including the case of Wei Minghui who was recently executed for
raping5 and
killing6 a young girl. The three criminals involved in the other three cases have been given heavy punishments.
The crimes of sexual assault against children gravely damage the physical and mental health of children and seriously violate social
ethics7 and morals, to which the SPC has always maintained a hard-line stance of zero
tolerance8, the SPC said.
Child sex
offenders9 will be sentenced to heavier punishments within the limits of the prescribed punishments, according to the SPC.
Courts across the country concluded 8,332 cases of sex offenses against children from 2017 to June 2019, according to the SPC, adding that recent years have seen an increasing number of such cases due to the public's strengthened
awareness10 of child protection and reporting cases immediately.
The Intermediate People's Court of Linyi in Shandong Province on Wednesday morning executed He Long, a criminal who
raped11 young girls under the age of 14 and forced them into prostitution, upon verification and approval of the SPC.