Beijing courts vow to keep fighting against court cheats

Beijing courts pledged on Wednesday to continue the fight against those who take advantage of assets seized by the courts using illegal means, as a move to advance the rule of law and improve social credit across the city.

"Some people were found to have forged legal documents to defraud others so that they could get hold of assets in judicial auctions, while some were discovered illegally renting apartments or houses that had been seized by courts," said Yang Yue, head of the enforcement bureau with the Beijing High People's Court.

He introduced the irregularities involving ruling enforcement to the media on Wednesday. On the same day, the Tongzhou District People's Court sentenced a defendant surnamed Zhang to 11 years in prison and imposed a 12,000 yuan ($1,835) fine because he faked documents related to judicial auction and cheated others out of more than 640,000 yuan.

"The illegal acts that disturbed implementation of court verdicts not only harmed people's legitimate rights and damaged judicial authority, but also brought negative effects to building the rule of law," said Lan Xiangdong, vice-president of the high court.

"We will intensify efforts to fight those who disturb the order of verdict enforcement by working with other departments to promote investigation and upgrading our own judicial system to increase our supervision," he added.

Statistics released by the high court shows that the capital's courts solved 268,913 cases relating to ruling enforcement in 2020, up about 2 percent year-on-year.

The Supreme People's Court, China's top court, has taken various measures since 2013 to ensure court rulings can be efficiently carried out and to further contribute to building a society based on social credit.

For example, those who fail to comply with court rulings have to face inconvenience in their daily lives as punishment for their dishonesty in the verdict implementation, such as restrictions in buying flight tickets or taking senior positions in enterprises.

By March, Beijing courts had forbidden more than 3.71 million flights and about 200,000 high-speed train trips, according to statistics.

Under the pressure caused by daily inconveniences, 87,600 defaulters have complied with court rulings, it added.