Chinese prosecutors initiate 8,500 public interest cases in first nine months

BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- During the first nine months of 2023, Chinese prosecutorial authorities nationwide accepted more than 152,000 cases of public interest litigation and initiated over 8,500 such cases, according to figures released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Wednesday.

During the same period, procuratorial organs approved the arrest of 520,000 criminal suspects and initiated prosecutions against 1.18 million individuals involved in criminal activities.

Official figures showed that prosecutorial authorities granted approval for the arrest of more than 18,000 juvenile crime suspects and prosecuted 26,000 juveniles involved in criminal activities in the first three quarters. During the same period, they also approved the arrest of 41,000 individuals involved in crimes against minors.

Between January and September, prosecutorial organs nationwide brought charges against a total of 22,000 individuals for intellectual property infringement crimes, up 49.7 percent year on year. Charges in these cases were predominantly connected to trademark infringement, according to the SPP.