The Supreme People's Procuratorate ("SPP") has recently issued the Circular on Issuing the 11th Batch of Guiding Cases of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (the "Circular"), providing guidance for procuratorial organs to handle cases involving crimes of sexual assault and abuse of minors.
The Circular states that three guiding cases (Case No.: Jian Li No. 42, No.43 and No.44), including a case where a criminal surnamed Qi was charged with rape and indecent assault of children, are hereby released as the 11th batch of guiding cases for the reference. Among others, the case in which a criminal surnamed Qi was convicted of rape and indecent assault of children provides definite guiding opinions to procuratorial organs in all regions on how to legally gain an accurate understanding of the criteria of examining the evidence available in a case involving the crime of sexual assaults on minors, and on whether relevant legal provisions concerning the "vicious rape or sexual assault of underage girls" and the "crime of public indecency with minors" shall apply. In another case where a criminal surnamed Luo is convicted of the indecent assault of a child, it is further clarified that indecent acts committed via an online communication tool are considered having the same social harm as that caused by concrete and physical indecent assaults on children, although the former does not involve any direct physical contact with children, and thus may be deemed as having constituted the (accomplished) crime of child molestation.