The Supreme People’s Court of the People's Republic of China has sentenced 21 people for punishment in the case of reselling cultural relics in the largest tomb in Hubei

The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China punished the 21st person for the crime of stealing ancient tombs and reselling cultural relics

The defendant heard the judge read the judgment

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Yesterday, the Suizhou District Court made a first-instance verdict on the series of the largest ransacked cultural relics series in Hubei: 21 defendants were sentenced for the crime of extorting ancient tombs and the crime of reselling cultural relics. The main culprits, Wang Xing, Zhang Jian, Liu Wen, and Wang Fang were found guilty of extorting ancient tombs and sentenced to 10 to 12 years imprisonment respectively.

Trial

Family members are tearful in court

At around 8:40 yesterday morning, the auditorium of the criminal trial division of the Zengdu District Court in Suizhou was fully occupied. The families of the 21 defendants arrived from Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Wuhan and Xiangyang, and they waited early. The main culprit was Wang Xing’s 17-year-old son and brother who had rushed from his hometown in Fuyang. The 80-year-old mother Zhang Jun, who was the chief offender of the largest number of cultural relics and involved cultural relics, also came from Wuhan.

At 9:00, the judge announced the hearing. 21 defendants were brought into court one after another. When they entered the courtroom, they all bowed their heads. When they saw the families in the audience, they raised their heads slightly and looked at the family for a moment. They were full of regret. At this time, there was a turmoil in the gallery and some families ran to the quarantine bar to ask the defendant about the situation. Some families were in tears.

Judges have to reiterate court discipline and the bailiffs let these families control their emotions. Afterwards, the defendant was brought to the defendant area by the bailiff in two rows.

Judgment up to 110 pages

The verdict of this case is up to 110 pages. The verdict confirms that Liu Wen and the defendants Wang Xing, Zhang Jian, Wang Fang, Yan Jun, Peng Jiang, and others robbed the ancient tombs of Suizhou City, the ancient tombs of the Lougudun and the tombs of Guojiamiao in Zaoyang City. Five ancient tombs committed crimes, including the defendants Wang Xing and Zhang Jian involved in the excavation of five ancient tombs. Five defendants Liu Wen, Wang Fang and Peng Jiang participated in the excavation of ancient tombs. The defendant Ren Jun participated in the excavation of ancient tombs. Since then, these stolen ancient tombs have great historical, artistic and scientific value, and the defendants have committed the crime of excavating ancient tombs.

At the same time, the defendant Zhang Jun reversed the sale of cultural relics for 39 crimes, of which 24 failed to resell, involved 6 primary cultural relics, 22 secondary cultural relics, 17 third-grade cultural relics, and 12 general relics; the defendant Liu Rong counterfeited the relics for committing the crime 4 Since then, three of them have served as help criminals, and two have been resold. Two pieces of cultural relics at the primary level, one cultural relic and one grade three cultural relics were involved, which constituted the crime of reselling cultural relics.

This series of counterfeit cultural relics was a case of cultural relics that involved the most people in Hubei Province, involved the most extensive range of cases, and had the greatest social influence. The case involved three criminal tomb gangs with members from Shandong, Hubei, Henan and Shanxi provinces. In the process of excavation of ancient tombs, three criminal gangs took part in the tomb-breaking and implemented the “one-stop” operation of providing funds, investing in equipment, exploring ancient tombs, extorting tombs, and selling goods.

4 principal offenders each sentenced to more than 10 years

On May 8th, 2012, the Suizhou Police set up a "5.8" task force to investigate the case of resurgence of cultural materials. The police collected nets in September 2012 and recovered hundreds of cultural relics and arrested dozens of suspects. The amount of 20 million yuan.

At 8 a.m. on October 23 last year, Zengdu District People’s Court held a public hearing to hear the case. Due to the complexity of the case and the large number of defendants, the trial lasted for two days.

The court held that the defendants Wang Xing, Zhang Jian, Liu Wen, Wang Fang, Peng Jiang, Yan Jun, and Liu Rong illegally seized ancient tombs at or above the provincial level for the purpose of illegally occupying Chinese ancient tomb objects and infringed upon them. The state’s management system for ancient tombs and the state’s ownership of cultural relics constitute the crime of excavation of ancient tombs. The defendants Wang Xing, Zhang Jian, Liu Wen, and Wang Fang all played the role of organization, command, or major role in participating in the excavation of ancient tombs. All of them were the principal offenders and should be punished according to all the crimes they participated in, organized, or commanded.

The defendants Zhang Jun, Liu Rong, and others, for the purpose of making profits, reselled cultural artifacts that were banned by the country or provided assistance for the resale of cultural objects by others. The circumstances were serious and infringed upon the country’s cultural relics management system. Their acts constituted the crime of reselling cultural relics.

The court ruled that the principal criminals Wang Xing, Zhang Jian, Liu Wen, and Wang Fang were guilty of the crime of digging an ancient tomb and were sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison respectively. The defendant Liu Rong was found guilty of the crime of digging ancient tombs and the crime of reselling cultural relics and sentenced him to 5 years’ imprisonment. The defendant Zhang Jun committed numerous crimes of reselling cultural relics, including many cultural relics involved, high grades of cultural relics, and large social influence. The plot was particularly serious and was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and a fine of 3 million yuan. The remaining defendants played a minor or supporting role in the crimes they participated in, and all of them also sentenced them to corresponding sentences according to law.

Wang Xing, Zhang Jian, Liu Wen, Wang Fang, Zhang Jun, Liu Rong, and others believed that the sentence was excessive and they appealed in court. (The characters in the text are all pseudonyms)

Crime details

Accounts often have millions of money in and out

Of all the defendants, Liu Rong, a hawker in Shandong who was nicknamed "Little Fatty", was one of the key figures in this major case.

The court found that in April 2011, Liu Rong contacted the local people for information on the sale of Suizhou cultural relics and ancient tombs, and promised to pay 10% of the price of the cultural relics to the commission. Liu Rong arranged for three times to carry out excavation in Shouzhou Yidigang Ancient Tombs and stole more than 20 pieces of bronzes.

In August 2011, the Suizhou Police received a report from the police and found that the next tomb was stolen. A special investigation team was quickly established to seize the tomb robbers and pull out the “little fat man”.

The police soon discovered that there was a larger cultural dealer behind the “little fat man”, namely Zhang Jun, who was known as “Wuhan Zhangge”. The bank account of “Wuhan Zhangge” often has millions of yuan in and out of money, and is closely associated with tomb raiders and cultural property dealers in various places. There is a huge underground market behind the black market. In September last year, the case was uniformly closed under the dispatch of the Ministry of Public Security. "Little Fatty" and "Wuhan Zhangge" all returned to the case and the case was announced.

"Wuhan Zhangge" was abducted twice

In this case, the defendant Zhang Jun engaged in the sale of 39 cultural relics for crimes. It involved many cultural relics, high grades of cultural relics, and large social influence. The plot was particularly serious and was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and a fine of 3 million yuan.

Zhang Jun loves antiques. After being laid off from a company in Wuhan more than 10 years ago, he specialized in antique business. He opened an antique shop in Luoyang, and his business spread all over the country. He was called “Wuhan Zhangge” in the industry. The assets in the family are basically earned by his business as a cultural relic, which amounts to about 18 million yuan.

However, this line of cultural relics is also full of risks. Zhang Jun’s wife, He Jia, claimed that her husband had been abducted twice for this line.

Case focus

Is the conclusion of the relevant cultural relics appraisal procedure scientific?

In the case of the prosecution on October 23 last year, the defense lawyers of the defendant put forward different opinions on the authoritativeness and legal procedures of cultural heritage appraisal. They believe that there are no uniform standards for the identification of cultural relics in China, and some of the cultural relics involved are spliced ​​with fragments to be identified as a first-class cultural relics. The identification results of the cultural relics were not presented to the suspects before the trial. The lawyer therefore believes that the defendant’s behavior does not constitute the crime of reselling cultural relics.

The court held that although there were no physical objects for accusation of the indictment's reselling of cultural relics, it was analyzed and judged from the defendant’s and the co-accused’s confession as well as the witness’s testimony confirming that the goods involved in the case were of great value and that the source of the article was hidden. It can be determined that the article is a general cultural relic, and the defendant's behavior can be deemed as a crime of reselling cultural relics.

At present, there is no specialized forensic institution for cultural relics in China, and the existing judicial appraisal institutions are generally not equipped with professional cultural relics appraisers. The cultural relics appraisal in this case was entrusted by the public security organ and was made by the Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Exit Identification Group or by the Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau organizing the use of experts and scholars in the name of the expert group. The identity of the experts involved in the appraisal and the authenticity of their duties are well documented. The Bureau of Cultural Relics invited the expert group to appraise the cultural relics involved. It was a scientific and reasonable choice made according to the relevant administrative regulations and the current status of cultural relics appraisal. The appraisal conclusions made by the Bureau were compared with the appraisal conclusions made by the forensic appraisal institutions that did not have cultural relics professional technicians. It is more scientific, authoritative and credible. The cultural relics appraisal procedures in this case do not violate the specific provisions in the “Provisional Measures for Cultural Relics Protection Law” that “the cultural relics should be determined by the local cultural relics administrative department at or above the county level”; the cultural relics identification in this case After making the investigation, the public security agency, when interrogating the relevant defendants, informed the defendant of the identification of the cultural relics in the form of the texts of the relevant cultural relics, and confirmed the confession of the relevant defendant in the public security organ.

Is the stolen tomb belong to the provincial cultural relics protection unit?

In the prosecution on October 23 last year, the relevant defendants and their lawyers believed that the Tomb Hill tombs and the Guo Jiamiao ancient tombs were not part of provincial cultural relics protection units. Can they not be used as a basis for conviction?

The court held that the allegations about the site of the excavation of ancient tombs in Suizhou City Yidigang and Zaoyang City Guojiamiao (Caomen Bay) belonged to the “Ancient Tombs of Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units”, evidence based not only on the Hubei Provincial People’s Government The documents issued by the People's Government of Suizhou regarding the protection scope of the provincial-level cultural relics protection units and the delineation of the construction control zones, the scope of protection provided by the Suizhou City and cultural relics administrative departments of the city of Zaoyang, and the maps of the construction control zones and relevant certificates issued by them. The cultural relics management department and the public security organ have determined the geographical coordinates of the location of the excavation, which is enough to confirm that the location of the excavation was within the protection scope of the provincial cultural relics protection unit.

The Cultural Relics Appraisal Team issued by the Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Authenticated Group issued the “Relics Appraisal Book”, which expresses the three geographical coordinates of Peigudun, Yidigang and Guojiamiao in the national key cultural relics protection units and provincial cultural relics protection units. The exact location of the statement is that the ancient tombs of the defendant's excavation sites mentioned above belonged to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and were of great historical and scientific value. The excavation of the ancient tombs caused by the ancient history and culture of the Zao Corridor caused irreparable damage. The "loss" is determined, not the identification or delineation of the scope of the protected area.

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