Photo: CFP
 

China has arrested 3,700 suspects for crimes related to the COVID-19 epidemic, said China's Procurator-General on Monday as the country released annual work reports of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. 

China's Supreme People's Court concluded hearings of 34,000 cases, and local courts concluded trials of 29 million cases in 2019, said Chief Justice and President of the Supreme People's Court of China Zhou Qiang.

Online courts played a crucial role during the coronavirus epidemic, as courts nationwide registered 1.36 million cases online and held 250,000 online court sessions, according to Zhou. 

The Supreme People's Court for the first time used augmented reality and 3D animation to illustrate court work reports in 2019, Zhou noted. 

China helped 482 companies alleviate hardships, and assisted 108,000 employees to retain their jobs, at a time when bankruptcy was looming large, he said. 

Chinese procuratorial organs dealt with 3.15 million cases in 2019, a 9.7 percent increase compared to 2018, said Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China Zhang Jun.

From February to April 2020, 3,700 suspects have been arrested for crimes related to the COVID-19 epidemic, of which 2,500 have been prosecuted, according to Zhang. 

In 2019, China's procuratorial organs handled 35,778 public interest litigations in the field of food and medicine safety and promoted the use of punitive damages to punish those convicted, Zhang said.

Sixteen provincial or ministry-level officials were prosecuted in 2019. In total, Chinese procuratorial organs dealt with 24,234 suspects for duty-related crimes, a yearly increase of 50.6 percent, Zhang said. 

Global Times