我国对刑法作出重大修改

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　　The amendment⁴ says criminals convicted on serious corruption charges who have received a two-year suspended death sentence will face life imprisonment⁵ after serving two years.

　　The move aims to safeguard judicial⁶ fairness and prevent the most corrupt² criminals from serving shorter prison terms through commutation.

　　Qu Xinjiu, professor at the China University of Political science and Law, says the amended⁷ statute⁸ is more reasonable than the previous one.

　　我国对刑法作出重大修改

　　"Compare to the previous provision, the change is that other factors, such as the motivation and the damage to the society, will also be considered. This can rectify⁹ the unreasonable¹⁰ phenomenon in which only the amount of corruption is concerned. Of course, the level of corruption is still the most important factor to consider."

　　The new rule mainly targets officials who illegally seek commutation, parole or non-prison sentences.

　　At the same time, the amendments¹¹ also stipulate¹² that human traffickers must face harsher criminal penalties.

　　Professor Qu Xinjiu says that, compared with previous revisions, the change is relatively¹³ substantial.

　　"The old version stipulated¹⁴ that the crime could be remitted¹⁵ if one didn't abuse or rape¹⁶ the trafficked women or children, or impede¹⁷ the rescue, which means the police would not press charges. But the law has changed and now those actions will only alleviate¹⁸ your penalty, which is a world of difference from the original version."

　　The revised law also repealed¹⁹ the crime of sex with underage prostitutes and reclassified it as rape, meaning it involves a tougher punishment.

　　Under the previous law, people who have sex with prostitutes less than 14 years old face a maximum of 15 years in prison, while those convicted of raping²⁰ a child may face the death sentence.

　　The revision comes after heated debates among many legal professionals questioning whether to scrap²¹ the crime of sex with underage prostitutes since it was written into the Criminal Law in 1997.

　　The top legislature has also removed the death penalty for nine crimes at the end of a six-day bimonthly session.

　　The nine crimes include smuggling²², counterfeiting²³ currency and raising funds by means of fraud, among other things.

　　After removing the death penalty for these crimes, those convicted will face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

　　For CRI, I'm Wang Mengzhen.

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