Chinese procuratorial organs handle over 32,000 public interest cases in Q1

BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese procuratorial organs handled 32,914 cases of public interest in the first quarter of 2021, marking a 99.5 percent year-on-year increase, according to statistics recently released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Procuratorial organs initiated 1,242 public interest litigations during the period, and courts across the country issued verdicts for 1,049 cases in the first instance.

Public interest cases filed by procuratorial organs cover a wide range of issues, including 17,951 cases relating to environmental protection and resource conservation, 6,291 cases relating to food and drug safety and 1,282 cases involving the protection of state-owned property.

Chinese procuratorial organs started exercising procuratorial functions in public interest litigation as vested by law in 2017 and have achieved good results in related work.