Benefiting enterprises, warming enterprises and popularizing laws first

[Introduction] In April this year, the Anhui Provincial Law Publicity Office, together with 12 units including the Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department, the Provincial Party Committee Cyber Information Office, the Provincial High Court, and the Provincial Procuratorate, deployed a law popularization activity with the theme of "benefiting enterprises, warming enterprises and popularizing laws first" in the province.

In order to strengthen case interpretation and give full play to the leading and exemplary role of typical cases, the Anhui Provincial Procuratorate has selected some typical cases to further strengthen the publicity of the rule of law for enterprises and deepen the rule of law for enterprises. The fourth issue is launched today: Chapter on Punishing Crimes of Destroying Ecological Environment and Natural Resources -- A case of environmental pollution by four people including Shang 。

A case of environmental pollution by 4 people including Shang

Keywords

The defendant, Shang, is a self-employed household that provides a dumping site for hazardous wastes.

Ma, the defendant, is a self-employed household providing a hazardous waste dumping site.

The defendant, Zhang Moumou, is a unemployed person in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province who contacted with the illegal transfer and disposal of hazardous wastes.

The defendant, Shen, is a jobless person in Yancheng, Jiangsu, who contacted with the illegal transfer and disposal of hazardous wastes.

In September 2021, an alloy company in Nanjing (hereinafter referred to as the alloy company) entrusted an environmental protection company in Nanjing to dispose of the general solid waste, knowing that the dust collected in the waste workshop was hazardous waste, and then transferred the hazardous waste to an environmental protection company in Yancheng. At the end of October 2021, Lv Moumou, the person in charge of an environmental protection company in Yancheng (handled in a separate case), contacted the defendant Zhang Moumou, asking him to provide a dumping site for hazardous wastes and pay relevant fees. Zhang Moumou arranged for Shen Moumou, the defendant, to handle the dumping, and Shen Moumou contacted the defendants Shang Moumou and Ma Moumou to provide dumping sites and collect fees. The above companies and individuals are not qualified for hazardous waste disposal.

In November of the same year, an environmental protection company in Nanjing transported three trucks of dedusting ash from the alloy company, including the dedusting ash generated from the production of the old factory and the dedusting ash collected by cyclone, which contains fluoride and belongs to hazardous waste. The two kinds of dust were mixed and discharged, with a total weight of 95.66 tons. All of them were dumped on a demolition site in a county of Anhui Province, which was mixed with the original construction waste and other solid wastes at the site, with a total weight of about 1000 tons.

It is identified that the mixed stacking materials have the leaching toxicity of inorganic fluoride and have seriously polluted the environment.

[Performance of procuratorial organs]

Intervention, guidance and evidence collection in advance. On January 28, 2022, the public security organ filed and investigated the case of Shang Moumou and others suspected of environmental pollution. A county procuratorate intervened in the investigation in advance, focusing on the following work: First, it went to the hazardous waste disposal site with public security investigators and environmental protection law enforcement personnel, listened to the introduction of the case, and analyzed the next investigation focus and direction around the suspects and difficulties of the case. Second, it is suggested that the public security organ should retrieve the data of the freight platform and find out the information of transport vehicles; Extract the video surveillance of dumping site and fix the electronic evidence.

Facilitate the payment of repair costs. Under the coordination of the local government, a county procuratorate set up a special cooperation team led by the procuratorate and participated by public security, environmental protection and other departments to timely coordinate the environmental protection department to assess the damage caused by environmental pollution, and urge the upstream waste production enterprises to actively pay more than 2.8 million yuan for ecological restoration and other costs.

Initiate public prosecution according to law. On September 29, 2022, a county procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Shang and other four people for the crime of environmental pollution. On January 16, 2023, some The county people's court sentenced four people involved in the case to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year and four months to eight months a year respectively for the crime of environmental pollution, and also fined them. The defendants Shang and Shen lodged an appeal on February 20, 2023, some The Municipal Intermediate People's Court ruled to uphold the original judgment.

（1） Accurately judge subjective knowledge. The subjective and intentional determination of the crime of polluting the environment is a difficult problem in handling the case. The procuratorial organ has examined and determined that, knowing that they are not qualified to dispose of solid wastes or hazardous wastes, Shang and others have not carefully inspected the dust and ash transported. After finding abnormal conditions, they still dump and cover them with excavators, and have not taken any anti-seepage, leak prevention, rain prevention, spill prevention and other measures, Its subjective intention should be identified as "dumping with knowledge of possible hazardous wastes".

（2） Accurately identify the quantity of hazardous wastes. The determination of the quantity of hazardous wastes cannot be simply based on the quantity of hazardous wastes mixed with non hazardous wastes. Attention should be paid to the combination of relevant evidence, comprehensive facts of the whole case and the principle of consistency between subjective and objective. Since the fact that the dust ash and other solid wastes at the dumping site form more than 1000 tons of toxic substances has exceeded the expectation of the enterprises and suspects involved in the case, it is more objective to determine the quantity of hazardous wastes based on the weight of the dust ash transported in the ton bag.

（3） Timely dispose of hazardous waste. The procuratorial organs pay attention to the timely repair of the polluted environment and effectively prevent the further expansion of pollution. In this case, the procuratorial organ suggested that the public security organ find out the source of pollutants and urge the environmental protection department to assess the consequences of environmental damage. In the stage of review and prosecution, the hazardous wastes involved in the case were safely disposed, and the enterprises involved in the case fulfilled the responsibility of compensation for environmental damage repair costs, and the damaged ecological environment was repaired.