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China says Covid detainees should be released in ‘timely’ manner after lifting controls
- A government notice tells local police and courts to free suspects from custody and return any property that has been seized or frozen
- The authorities also say they will continue to target counterfeiters, smugglers and price gougers after shortages of medicines resulted in soaring prices
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Suspects held in custody in Covid-related cases should be released in “a timely and proper manner” following the U-turn on zero-Covid, the Chinese government announced on Saturday.
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A government notice also said that any property that had been seized or frozen should be released, while quarantine and control measures at the state borders will also no longer be criminalised.
It was jointly released by five different Chinese national authorities, and told local courts, police and customs to “fully and accurately implement the criminal policy of leniency and severity” in accordance with the law.
There have been a number of incidents where people have been detained after clashing with police for refusing to take swab tests or follow lockdown regulations.
High-profile cases include a man from Guangzhou who was detained and charged in 2021 for breaking quarantine rules to visit his parents after they tested positive and then hid his visit from health workers.
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The previous year a man from Henan province became the first person in China to be jailed for breaking quarantine rules after he was given an 18-month sentence for returning to work two days after returning from a trip to Europe and trying to hide his travel history from the authorities.
The government has already said that from Sunday onwards, the management of the disease will be downgraded from a category A – which puts it alongside the most deadly diseases such as bubonic plague and cholera – to a category B.
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