The people's procuratorate in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province, on Thursday delivered a lawsuit to the local court charging a foreigner with dangerous driving. This is the first case involving foreign nationals to be handled by a grass-roots procuratorate.
The suspect, Abdul Ajees Mohamed Mustafa, 24, a businessman from India, was caught by the Yiwu police after he struck trees and a billboard with his car on November 8. He was sent to the hospital and tested positive for drunk driving, according to the Legal Daily.
China recently amended its Criminal Procedure law, and the changes took effect on January 1. Before the amendment, only procuratorates above the city level could handle charges involve foreigners.
The Chaoyang People's District procuratorate in Beijing also said that it had received a case concerning foreign citizens on Tuesday but it hasn't kicked off the prosecution process yet, according to a press release sent to the Global Times by the procuratorate on Thursday.
No details of the case have been released and the press office of Chaoyang procuratorate said the case didn't happen in the district but more details will be disclosed after the process begins.
"The change is understandable because more foreigners are coming to China than before and it is fair to treat them the same as Chinese," Wan Fang- liang, a Beijing-based lawyer, told the Global Times
About 27.1 million foreigners came to China in 2011 while only 740,000 entered the country in 1980, and the number has increased by 10 percent annually in the past 10 years, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
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