What kind of crime is it to open other people's letters many times privately?

Zhao is a life committee member of Class 1, No.1 Middle School (1) in a county. He is 17 years old this year. As a life member, Zhao is responsible for sending and receiving newspapers and letters in the class. He is conscientious in his work and always sends letters to his classmates as quickly as possible. Recently, Zhao found that there were many letters from monitor Tang, and the stamps on the envelopes were all posted backwards. According to them, all the stamps posted upside down indicate that they are love letters from girls.

Tang and Zhao often quarrel because of a little thing in the class, and they are both the best in the class and jealous of each other. One day, Zhao found something hard and thick in Tang's letter. He thought it must be a photo of Tang's girlfriend. For a time, he was jealous and curious, so he secretly opened Tang's letter. After reading it, he carefully handed the envelope to Tang.

Since then, Zhao has opened Tang's letters many times. Once, Zhao read Tang's letter and accidentally put one of his compositions in Tang's letter. When Tang opened the letter, he found Zhao's composition in it. Tang recalled that many of his letters seemed to have been opened before. He thinks it must belong to Zhao Gan. Tang was very angry and told the teacher at once. The teacher attached great importance to it and immediately called Zhao. Zhao Cheng admitted his mistake and read Tang's letters many times. Seeing that his attitude was sincere and serious, the school gave Zhao a probation in order to sound the alarm for other students.

Comment and analysis

The fourth chapter of China's criminal law stipulates the crime of violating citizens' personal rights and democratic rights. The crime of infringing on citizens' personal rights refers to the act of intentionally or negligently infringing on others' personal rights and other rights directly related to the person. The crime of infringing citizens' democratic rights refers to the act of illegally depriving or hindering citizens from freely exercising their rights to manage the country and participate in political activities. The objects of such crimes are citizens' personal rights, democratic rights and other rights.

The so-called personal rights refer to people's life, health, freedom, personality and reputation, as well as other rights directly related to the person. The so-called democratic rights refer to the rights of citizens to participate in the management of state and political activities as stipulated by the Constitution and laws, such as the right to vote, to stand for election, the right to criticize, the right to sue or expose, and the right to appeal. The so-called other rights refer to the rights enjoyed by citizens except personal rights and democratic rights stipulated by the Constitution and laws, such as freedom of religious belief, freedom of communication, and the right to maintain the customs and habits of ethnic minorities. Among them, crimes against other rights of citizens include the crime of forcing laborers to work, the crime of illegal search, the crime of violating freedom of communication, the crime of opening, hiding, destroying and discarding mail and telegrams without permission, and the crime of illegally invading houses.

In this case, Zhao's behavior actually violated Tang's right to freedom of communication. Freedom of communication and privacy are a basic right given to citizens by our laws. Article 252 of China's Criminal Law stipulates: "Whoever conceals, destroys or illegally opens other people's letters and infringes upon citizens' right to freedom of correspondence, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 1 year or criminal detention. "The so-called concealment refers to hiding other people's letters in secret so that the recipient can't check them;" "Destroying or discarding" refers to tearing up, burning or discarding other people's letters, with the same purpose, in order to make it impossible for the recipients to read them; "Unlawful opening" means opening other people's letters without legal procedures.

The "others" here refers to anyone except yourself, including parents, children, brothers and sisters, teachers, classmates, neighbors, individuals and units. As long as it's not your own letter, you can't open it privately. The "letters" here not only refer to letters, but also include postcards, greeting cards, telegrams and photos. As long as it is delivered to the post office by letter, it is the object of this crime.

The subject of the crime of infringing on freedom of communication is a general subject, and anyone who has reached the age of 16 can become the subject of this crime. Subjectively, as long as the actor has subjective intention, his motivation is not emphasized. At the same time, the degree condition of the crime of infringing on freedom of communication is "serious circumstances", that is, hiding, destroying or opening others' letters for many times; Because of concealing, destroying or opening others' letters without permission, the recipient's events are delayed; Hiding, destroying or opening others' letters without permission, resulting in serious consequences such as insanity and suicide of others; Concealing, destroying or opening a large number of letters of others without permission. In this case, Zhao's behavior has not reached the level of "serious circumstances", and he is a minor, which is appropriate as a school discipline.