Prosecutors target attacks on medics
Prosecuting departments will initiate a mechanism to quickly arrest and prosecute people who injure medical staff, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on Friday.
“Once such cases occur, we will treat them as major and sensitive cases. Prosecutors should immediately start a fast response mechanism to handle them,” Huang He, director of the SPP’s case investigation and supervision department, told a news conference.
He said that no matter what reasons are involved, injuring doctors “poses a serious threat to social security and results in a bad social influence, and we will adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ attitude toward fighting them”.
According to Wang Songmiao, a spokesman for the SPP, the top prosecuting department will supervise departments at each level to launch an immediate investigation into such cases.
Moreover, they will guide police officers to gather evidence to ensure it is high quality, and once police departments issue warrants they will arrest and prosecute the suspects in a timely manner.
In recent years, a number of medical staff have been attacked and even killed, focusing attention on the safety of medical staff when they are treating patients.
In a recent case, Li Gang was charged with intentional homicide by the Taocheng district people’s procuratorate in Hengshui city, Hebei province.
In 2003, Li was involved in a traffic accident and went to the No 4 People’s Hospital in Hengshui for treatment. Afterward, his right leg became disabled due to an infection, leading him to want to kill his doctor, Liu Guangyue.
In July, he found Liu at the hospital’s orthopedics department and quarreled with him. Li then killed Liu with a knife.
Since 2013, the SPP has issued notices to clearly define such crimes and actively include them into the revised Criminal Law, Wang said.