Translation:People v Yang Xubin (2020)

Haizhu District People’s Court Guangzhou, Guangdong, PR China

Criminal Judgement

[2020] Yue 0105 Xing Chu No 23

Prosecution Authority: the People’s Procuratorate of Haizhu District of Guangzhou (the ‘Prosecution’).

The Defendant, Yang Xubin, male, born on 3 May 1980, Han Chinese, bachelor’s degree, is a resident of Jieyang, Guangdong, with household registration location at the Residential Committee Hall of Yunlu Town, Jiedong District, Jieyang, Guangdong. The Defendant was taken into custody for the present case on 26 August 2019, criminally detained the next day, and formally arrested on 25 September of the same year. He is now detained in Guangzhou Haizhu Detention Centre.

[Information about the defence counsel has been redacted]

On 2 January 2020, the Prosecution filed the present case with this Court by the Indictment [2019] Sui Hai Jiansu Xingsu No 2017 against the Defendant for committing the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. This Court then applied the summary procedure in compliance with the law, appointed a single judge for the trial and adjudication and held a public hearing of this case. Assigned by the Prosecution, Prosecutor Chen Cheng appeared in court on behalf of the People to present the case. The Defendant and his defence counsel appeared before the court and attended the proceedings. The trial of the case has now been concluded.

The Court, upon trial of this case, ascertains that: On the 24th and 26th of August 2019, in order to express his discontent with society and vent personal emotions, the Defendant carried spray cans and sprayed slogans of ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’, ‘independence’, ‘universal franchise’, ‘revolution of our times’, ‘liberate Guangzhou’, ‘Guangdong independence’, and ‘support HR [ recte HK ] ’, in Xiaozhou Village of Haizhu District of this city, at a variety of locations listed as follows: on the wall of Building 11 of Lane 19 of Yingnan Avenue, walls beside the entrance and next to the ATM of the Xiaozhou Branch of Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank at No 77 Yingzhou North Road, the wall beside the entrance of Pinchao Food at No 108 Yingzhou North Road, the wall beside the entrance of Jiamai Bakery on Yingzhou North Road; on the bridge piers of Nansha Port Expressway; and on the station board and nearby walls of Yingzhou Ecological Park Station. His acts had caused crowds of surrounding people to look on. On 26 August of the same year, the Defendant was apprehended by the police on the second floor of Building 11, Lane 19, Yingnan Avenue, Xiaozhou Village, Haizhu District, Guangzhou.

The aforesaid facts, substantiated by the evidence transferred with the case, were also not contested by the Defendant during the court hearing and are therefore sufficient to establish.

During the Examination and Prosecution stage of the case, the Defendant expressed that he would voluntarily plead guilty and accept the punishments and submitted the ‘Binding Declaration on Pleading Guilty and Accepting the Punishments’.

This Court holds that the acts of the Defendant have constituted the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble and are therefore punishable according to law. However, the Defendant has a mitigating circumstance of candid confession, for which a lighter punishment can be given. Given that the Defendant voluntarily pleaded guilty and is willing to accept the punishment, and since the punishment he is willing to accept falls within the range of the sentencing recommendation proposed by the Prosecution, this Court then lawfully applies the Plea Leniency System, and a lenient punishment within the range of the sentencing recommendation made by the Prosecution is to be given. The pertinent defence opinion raised by the defence counsel, which pleads for a lighter punishment to be given to the Defendant based on the said grounds, is well-founded and thus is adopted by this Court. In accordance with Paragraph 1 of Article 293, Paragraph 3 of Article 67, and Article 64 of The Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, and Articles 1 and 5 of The Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of Picking Quarrels and Provoking Trouble, the Court hereby rules that:

I. The Defendant committed the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble and is sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of nine (9) months; (The term of imprisonment shall be counted from the date of execution of the judgement; where the Defendant is detained on remand prior to the execution of the judgement, one day of such detention shall be credited as one day of the sentence, that is, the term of imprisonment begins on 26 August 2019 and ends on 25 May 2020.) and

II. The distrained articles, including forty-eight (48) sheets of notebook paper (involving the Defendant’s political study notes and slogans), four (4) sheets of notebook paper (with words ‘liberate’, ‘Hong Kong’, ‘revolution of’, and ‘our times’ written on them), four (4) highlighter pens, one (1) gas mask, one (1) helmet, one (1) backpack, one (1) pair of gloves, five (5) spray cans, one (1) umbrella, one (1) LG mobile phone, and one (1) memory card, are to be confiscated (and shall be executed on behalf of this Court by the Haizhu Branch of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau).

If the Defendant refuses to accept the present judgement as final and binding, a petition for appeal may be submitted through this Court or directly to the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court of Guangdong within ten (10) days commencing on the day following the day of receipt of this judgement. In case of a written appeal, one (1) original copy and two (2) duplicated copies of the petition shall be submitted.