Facts and figures: China's judicial work in 2006

The following are the main facts and figures about China's justice system in 2006 revealed in Xiao Yang's work report:

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- A total of 3,668 cases involving a variety of crime were handled by the supreme court in 2006, up 14.77 percent over the previous year.

- Local courts at all levels heard and concluded 8,105,007 cases in 2006, up 2.07 percent over 2005, including 798,572 criminal cases, or 9.85 percent of the total; 4,831,043 civil cases, or 59.61 percent; and 125,976 administrative cases, or 1.55 percent.

- The local courts in 2006 made first-instance trials on 701, 379 criminal cases and sentenced 889,042 convicted criminals.

- Courts across the country in 2006 tried and concluded 245, 254 criminal cases involving felonies like explosion, murder, robbery, rape and kidnapping, and sentenced 340,715 criminals convicted in such cases.

- Courts across the country heard 23,733 cases of embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty in 2006, sentencing 825 convicted government officials above the county level, including 9 provincial- and ministerial-level officials.

- Courts across the country in 2006 tried and concluded 31,582 cases involving the manufacture, trafficking and sale of narcotics, while sentencing 37,256 convicted criminals.

- The Chinese courts in 2006 heard and concluded 17,769 cases of intellectual property rights infringement, including 2,277 criminal cases in which 3,508 people were convicted and sentenced, and 14,056 civil cases and 1,436 administrative cases.

- Among all criminals convicted in China in 2006, 153,724 received sentences from five years or longer in prison up to life imprisonment and death penalty.

- Chinese courts at various levels in 2006 pronounced 1,713 criminal defendants innocent, following the principle of meting out penalty to the guilty and setting the innocent free in time in accordance with the law.

- Courts at all levels in 2006 heard and concluded 23,313 cases involving foreign nationals and residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 16.39 percent year on year.

- The supreme court received 140,511 letters, visits and calls of complaints and petitions in 2006, a drop of 4.71 percent year on year, while local courts across the country received 3,548,504 such letters, visits and calls, a decrease of 11.18 percent.

- In 2006, 292 judges were found to have abused power for personal interests, and 109 of them were given criminal penalty according to law.

- The supreme court took back the power to review and ratify all death penalty cases as of January 1, 2007, ending a 26-year practice of letting courts at lower levels decide on part of such cases.

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