Chinese procuratorial organs handle over 60,000 public interest lawsuits in H1

BEIJING -- Procuratorial organs across China handled 61,024 public interest lawsuits during the first half of 2020, marking a 2.6 percent year-on-year decrease, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said on July 20.

Up to 90.5 percent of the total lawsuits were filed against administrative organs, and the rest of the cases were about civil affairs, according to the SPP, noting that the procuratorial organs had prosecuted 2,265 public interest litigations.

About 4,653 hectares of damaged forest land, wetland, and grassland, among others, have been restored through public interest litigations between January and June, up 219.9 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the SPP.

The procuratorial organs also confiscated 25,000 kilograms of fake and inferior food by investigating public interest lawsuits during the first half this year, said the SPP.

Public interest litigations mainly focus on the cases involving environmental protection and resource conservation, food and drug safety, state-owned land-use rights, protection of state-owned property and protection of the reputation of heroes and martyrs, said Dong Guiwen, an official with the SPP.

The procuratorial organs also handled 7,846 public interest lawsuits other than the five fields during the first half this year, Dong added.