Top prosecutor issues clearer penalties for hoax threats

The details of three criminal cases were released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Tuesday in an effort to guide local prosecutors on how to handle cases involving fabrication and spread of terrorist threats, especially those targeting civilian flights.

The SPP said on its website that the move aims to call for severe punishment as a means of preventing threats which have caused huge economic losses to airlines and airports, and public panic over taking planes.

Two of the cases involved making bomb threats on passenger flights. The other, which concerns making threats to shopping malls in many big cities to extort money, led to harsher punishment.

Ruan Qilin, a criminal law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that the cases aim to deter those who want to fabricate and spread such threats, as a standard for issuing penalties is clearly explained.

"Currently, prosecutors are confused about the severity of penalties when handling such cases as related laws are not clear enough in identifying these cases as criminal ones or simply a violation of public security," Ruan added.

On Tuesday, a man was detained for making a fake bomb threat targeting a flight for Beijing from Kunming, Yunnan Province, the provincial police department said on Wednesday, adding that the flight had 113 passengers aboard.

The hoax was the latest in a series of such cases in the country since May. Two men from Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces have been arrested for fabricating such threats, which grounded as many as 16 flights.

Ruan said that the cases also serve to educate those unaware of the law, as the suspects had not realized the consequences of their actions.

A notice issued by the Ministry of Public Security on May 21 states that those who make such threats could face severe punishment, rather than a few days' detention.

"These cases echo the public security ministry's notice and can be regarded as a sign of cooperation between judicial organs in cracking down on such crimes," Ruan said.