During the construction of a highway, the project manager of a large construction central enterprise was charged with illegal mining and illegal occupation of agricultural land for taking soil and rocks within the temporary land area. If convicted, the client will not only face years of imprisonment, but also his career will be ruined. After Peng Jiyue and Feng Wang's hard work in defense, the prosecuting authority finally considered that there was insufficient evidence in the case and made a decision not to prosecute, and the client regained his innocence.

First, the provincial department supervise, heavy pressure make the party can not sleep at night

A construction group constructed a highway project, the person concerned is the project manager. In the process of highway construction, the mountain road and water bridge, digging tunnels generated by the need to deal with the soil and rock, pad roadbed also need to fill in the soil and rock. In order to meet the construction needs, the project department to the local government to apply for a temporary land, the construction unit from which the extraction of soil and stone for the project needs.

Unbeknownst to the completion of the project, the government's natural resources department by satellite photography found that the vegetation of the site is abnormal, by the natural resources department and the public security organs of the joint investigation, that the project department there is illegal mining and illegal occupation of agricultural land, the parties involved in this case was criminalized, and by the provincial natural resources department directly supervise the case.

This usually thundering man suffered from heavy pressure all of a sudden, couldn't sleep at night, and found King&Capital Law Firm to make a last-ditch effort for his reputation, and also for a stable and happy life in the future.

What you may not know is that earth, stone and even water can be “mines”.

What the client does not understand is why the soil on the ground and the rocks on the mountain are also considered “mines”. Since a road construction, how is illegal mining “mine”?

In fact, according to China's mineral resources classification breakdown, mineral resources in addition to our familiar energy minerals (such as coal, oil), metal minerals (gold, silver, copper and iron), but also includes non-metallic minerals and hydrocarbon minerals. Many of the rocks on the mountains in nature seem to be useless, but in fact belong to limestone, of which building stone with limestone and other rocks are non-metallic minerals. Groundwater and mineral water belong to the water and gas minerals. Therefore, randomly drilling a well for water may also be “illegal mining” behavior.

After communicating with the client analysis, the defense lawyer told the client that the focus of the dispute is not in the mine, but in the scope of the temporary land mining. This situation is very common in the construction field, and is used for the project's own needs, and not sold for profit, which is a fundamental difference from the typical illegal mining behavior of stealing national ore for profit.

Third, careful sorting to crack the puzzle of mining criminal cases

Whether the mining of soil and stone within the scope of the temporary land is a mining act, whether it is necessary to apply for a mining license, is controversial in the policy. In this regard, the defender combed through all the departmental rules and regulations, local regulations and other materials of the state and the provinces involved in the case since 1998 in detail, and gained a panoramic understanding of the management system of taking earth and stone within the scope of construction land in China.

The defense specially produced a compilation of laws and regulations and submitted it to the procuratorial authorities for reference.

Through combing found that in 1998, the Ministry of Land and Resources clear within the scope of the approval of engineering and construction projects to take earth and stone for the construction of the project does not need to apply for a mining license. As to whether the temporary land is “approved scope of land for construction projects” is not clear, in practice, the local grasp of the scale is inconsistent, in the words of the parties, they have done other projects have never asked for a mining license. It was not until 2023 that the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a new regulation (“Notice on Regulating and Improving the Management of Sand and Gravel Mining”), which made it clear that the land for construction projects did not include temporary land. However, the facts of this case occurred before 2023, still in the stage of the policy ambiguity period, and the legal basis for convicting the parties was insufficient.

For the information that the defense combed through, the client exclaimed that it was very clear and more detailed than what he, an industry insider, knew. The prosecutor also said that the work of the defense is very solid. In fact, the defense is so, each case should be attentive in-depth study, not only to understand the facts of the case, but also to understand the ins and outs of the facts, arising from the historical background, the development of the social environment, so as to be able to produce a distinction between the surface understanding of the insights.

At the same time, the defense lawyer also cut from the evidence, pointed out that at the beginning of the local government also did not require a mining license, late policy changes, but there is no evidence to prove that the notification to the parties, and at present can not be proved in the first period of the amount of mining is how much, how much the amount of mining in the latter part of the period of the amount of mining, whether it reached the standard of recourse; illegal occupation of agricultural land has also gone through the approval of the unit, and it can not be proved to be the parties to the individual decision making The behavior of the ...... evidence on the doubt for the case to increase the double insurance.

Fourth, illegal mining case processing, can not ignore the case of “every data” sources

Illegal mining is a crime of result, the value of the minerals extracted or the value of the damage caused to the mineral resources as the main prosecution and sentencing criteria. In practice, it is necessary to consider a variety of factors, such as the type of ore, taste, market price, etc., and the judicial authorities often entrust professional organizations to determine the value of the ore. Legal persons without specialized knowledge of the mining industry are often unable to comment on the assessment opinion.

In this case, after the assessment of professional institutions, illegal mining ore body area of more than 30,000 square meters, the total amount of illegal mining construction stone with chert ore resources in the appraisal area of more than 1.6 million tons, resulting in the destruction of mineral resources for the total value of more than RMB 40 million yuan.

However, the seemingly authoritative opinion was still found loopholes. First, from the spatial aspect, the assessment agency failed to determine how much was mined within the scope of the temporary land use and how much was mined outside the scope of the temporary land use, which may be characterized differently; second, from the temporal aspect, because the local government has experienced a change in attitude from permitting the mining to ordering the mining to stop, and it is apparently not possible to determine how much was mined after the mining was ordered to stop and whether it reached the standard of recourse. The questioning of these key issues is an important part of the process.

The questioning of these key issues is an important reason that prompted the prosecutor to believe that the case is factually unclear and insufficient evidence.

Fifth, defense lawyers and prosecutors to establish healthy communication, the case to achieve a just outcome is the result of the legal community's concerted efforts

The prosecutor in this case is a professional and serious person with an objective and generous attitude, who has truly made it his duty to judge the case on the basis of facts, without aiming at prosecution and conviction. In the process of handling the case, the defense and the prosecutor for a number of long time communication, he always maintains an open attitude, never closed, stalling perfunctory situation, and even the phone will hardly be unable to get through, can be said to be the defense lawyers and the people's heart of the prosecutor's expectations.

A judicial case for society's most important significance, may not be the final determination of guilt or innocence. But by the public, prosecution, law, lawyers of various groups of legal people to follow the common rule of law rules to discuss and characterize, so that every case does not exist who won who lost, every time we jointly maintain the spirit of the rule of law is another victory and manifestation of the spirit!