Call for the release of two Liaoning truck drivers who were sentenced to four years in prison for epidemic prevention

On December 7, the State Council issued the "New Ten Articles" policy for epidemic prevention, officially announcing the end of the three-year-long stringent COVID-19 eradication policy. On December 26, the State Council once again announced that the level of prevention and control of new crown virus infection would be lowered from "Class B and A" to "B and B" (from January 8, 2023) . Acts that obstruct the government's measures to prevent and control the new crown epidemic will no longer be considered as conditions for the crime of "obstructing the prevention and control of infectious diseases".

This is important good news. Under the three-year strict zero-clearing policy, too many people have to face the survival and economic crisis caused by the lockdown while cooperating with the lockdown. There are sporadic protests across the country that challenge the rationality of control , and the police imposed coercive measures or prosecuted them in accordance with the Infectious Diseases Act. Such cases are numerous and difficult to count. The new "Class B and Control" policy will completely rehabilitate these acts of resisting control that do not cause serious harm.

However, what is heartbreaking is that one month before the full liberalization of the policy, two Liaoning truck drivers were severely sentenced to 4 years in late November because they failed to report their trips in time in early 2022, which led to the spread of the new crown. According to media reports, two truck drivers, He Moumou and Han Moumou, failed to report their itinerary in time, causing 183 people to be infected with the new crown in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province. The two drivers were also infected. At the same time, 7865 people were quarantined. The expenditure is about 155 million yuan. The Liaoning court believed that the two seriously violated the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases" and caused the spread of (Class B) infectious diseases, which had serious consequences. They were given heavy sentences of more than three years in accordance with the criminal law.

Since the official verdict has not been made public, it is difficult for us to know the specific details of the entire case. It is difficult for the outside world to fully know whether the two truck drivers sincerely and intentionally concealed their itinerary, and whether they intentionally concealed their new crown infection. However, after the full liberalization of epidemic prevention, first of all, we have become very clear that the social and health hazards of the new crown virus (Amicron) are not as serious as the previous officials said. The official adjustment of it to "Class B and B Control" is also a correction and acknowledgment that the virus itself does not meet the risk of transmission as stated in the criminal law, and the strong concealment of the Aomecron virus itself may not be able to make the victims The infected person perceives that the behavior of the two people, whether intentional or unintentional, no longer constitutes a danger to society.

Even under the circumstances at that time, the government invested a lot of manpower and financial resources in the local epidemic control out of emergency, but this cost should not be converted into a standard for judging the degree of "illegal" of the two truck drivers. What is more important to reflect is: Why hasn't the government changed this kind of waste of life and wealth, ignoring the needs of people's livelihood, and even spawning multiple government corruptions (such as nucleic acid fraud) and inhuman sealing measures that have been increased layer by layer? Didn't the new crown virus be separated from the "category B infectious disease with reference to the control of category A" in time? Looking back now, we should have adopted more scientific control measures in a timely manner, but the entire social governance completely lacks dialogue and self-correction mechanisms. This is by no means the fault of the two truck drivers.

Secondly, under the three-year blockade, truck drivers play a key role in the supply chain of the overall market. However, local governments have long discriminated against and rejected truck drivers who have been traveling across provinces and cities on highways for a long time, and implemented layers of control measures. , Not only caused a crisis in material supply under the control of the epidemic at a critical time, but also caused many livelihood challenges and transportation obstacles to tens of millions of truck drivers. During the lockdown period, there were numerous anti-epidemic measures and punishments for truck drivers: "trip codes, asterisks, nucleic acids, and risk areas" are all mountains tied to the drivers' heads - truck drivers who have traveled across provinces and cities for a long time will inevitably pass by Risky areas, but they are often stranded at highway intersections due to various overweight requirements in various cities and regions, and are not allowed to get off the highway; even the cabs of many trucks are sealed, and drivers are required not to leave the cab for a long time during transportation. Eating, drinking, and eating can only be done in the car; some drivers were even fined 2,000 yuan for eating instant noodles without wearing a mask in the car; let’s not forget that in the first half of 2021, the car was impounded and fined because the Beidou system was disconnected Jin Deqiang, a truck driver who committed suicide by taking pesticide for 2,000 yuan. These are their history of blood and tears.

The inhuman epidemic prevention requirements imposed on truck drivers are only the tip of the iceberg of the plight of this group. Three years into the pandemic, the crisis of a broader economic downturn is translating into an even heavier burden on the shoulders of truck drivers: skyrocketing gas prices, exploitative underpricing by unregulated internet freight platforms, hard-to-pay truck loans or rents; not to mention , Truck drivers, who are regarded as self-employed workers, lack any labor security and social support system under the current employment system. Under such living conditions, the two truck drivers inadvertently caused the virus to spread just because they failed to realize that they were infected and passed through high-risk areas and failed to report their trips in time . In those days, who is willing to accept quarantine for no reason, and who would deliberately contract and spread the virus? ), but suffer such a severe punishment.

Why should innocent people bear the cost of the government's epidemic prevention? With the three-year epidemic prevention system, how much bailout support has the government provided for grassroots workers?

After the "Class B and B Control" policy was officially applied to the new crown control, legal scholars pointed out that all cases related to epidemic prevention that have not yet been rendered effective judgments should be treated in accordance with the principle of "from the old to the lighter" in the "Criminal Law". Crime dealt with. That is to say, for cases related to the crime of “obstructing the prevention and control of infectious diseases” before January 8, 2023, 1) the case should be withdrawn if it has been filed; 2) at the stage of review and prosecution, a statutory decision not to prosecute should be made; 3) Those in the first instance stage should be acquitted or the prosecution should be withdrawn, and the case in the second instance stage should be acquitted in the first instance. However, for judgments that have already come into force and have been enforced, the effectiveness of the judgment will not be affected, and it will be difficult to obtain the support of the court if there is no new evidence other than the change of the closure policy. That is to say, the case of two truck drivers in Liaoning who obstructed the prevention and control of infectious diseases discussed in this article had come into effect one month before the new policy was issued.

This result is unacceptable.

Before the judgment, the local court in Liaoning had learned that the government had released the new "Twenty Articles" of epidemic prevention regulations on November 11, which had indicated that the country's overall prevention and control measures were moving towards liberalization, but the court still ignored the work of the two men. Due to the particular nature and harmlessness of the behavior, it is regarded as a felony and given a heavy sentence. This is obviously unconvincing.

A few days ago, Kuaishou blogger "Mengge Chat Rixie" ( video link ) went to the hometown of two sentenced truck drivers in Liaoning, and what he saw was shocking. The elders in the family are two old parents who are close to 70 years old, and the two sentenced drivers He Moumou and Han Moumou, one is the son of the two old people and the other is the son-in-law, they are the pillars of the family. In the blogger's video, the two drivers' rural homes are simple tile-roofed houses, with newspapers covering the walls. We can hardly imagine how difficult the next four years will be for this rural family who lost their two pillars. In the video, the blogger "Mengge" asked questions that are also worthy of consideration by the public, especially those in power:

"A hidden (unreported) itinerary code was sentenced to four years in prison, and a warning given by a company that repeatedly falsified nucleic acid test results was only a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars in fines...Nucleic acid agencies earn hundreds of millions a year, and we are poor in maintaining cars. My annual income is only tens of thousands of dollars, so don’t always go to quarantine and persuasion... Which is more serious? Is it true?”

"Brother Meng" sighed at the end of the video. If this matter "don't talk about it, will no one talk about it?" However, soon, his video was taken off the shelves on multiple platforms. Discussions about truck drivers in 2010 were only circulated in the circle of truck friends, and the voices calling for an exceptional commutation of their sentences were too weak . However, this unprovoked four-year disaster will do great harm to these two families, and it will also do far-reaching harm to the entire card friend group. Jin Deqiang's suicide is still vivid in my mind.

People at the bottom are always victims of social crises. Under the epidemic, the grassroots workers have suffered enough; the end of 2022 the epidemic is completely released, and the society is slowly restarting life. I hope that the appeal of social forces can also respond to these two people who have been forcibly detained for up to a year. A new opportunity for the truckers to give these two families a little hope for the New Year:

Call for the acquittal of the two truck drivers He and Han!