What are the sentencing provisions of the criminal law on the crime of spreading rumors to disturb the morale of the army in wartime?

Legal analysis: (1) Object elements: The object of this crime is wartime propaganda and public opinion order. Stimulating the fighting spirit of officers and men in wartime and maintaining the high morale of the troops are important conditions for winning the battle and an important task of our military's political work. The behavior of spreading rumors to confuse people and disturb the morale of the army in wartime deviates from the citizens' national defense obligations stipulated in the national defense law and the basic principles of China's political work, which dampens the morale of the army, seriously hinders the operation and harms the national defense interests. The object of this crime is a soldier. (2) objective elements: this crime is objectively manifested as the behavior of the perpetrator in wartime, spreading rumors to confuse people and shake the morale of the army. The so-called spreading rumors and confusing people refers to the act of fabricating non-existent facts or deliberately distorting and exaggerating the truth and spreading it in the army. The so-called disturbing the morale of the army means that soldiers are confused and deceived, do not know the truth, produce fear, war-weariness and terror, disturb the soldiers' psychology, make them uneasy and demoralized, and seriously affect the implementation of military orders and actions. For example, exaggerating the strength of the enemy or the performance of weapons and equipment; Fabricating the facts of the enemy's environmental assistance; Fabricate our failures, heavy casualties and military difficulties; Rumor that our army does not cooperate or refuses to carry out orders; Exaggerate the combat effectiveness and lethality of enemy weapons and belittle the performance of our weapons; Flatter enemy leaders and belittle our military leaders; Speak out for the cruelty of war; And so on, thus shaking the morale of the army. As for its way, some of them are fabricated and circulated by themselves; Some are still spreading because they know that this is a rumor; Some use information, propaganda, slogans, speeches, reports, television, movies, videos and so on. Publicly spread rumors; Others use letters, leaflets, slogans, books, manuscripts, etc. Spread rumors; By analogy, as long as its contents are fabricated and distributed to unspecified soldiers in wartime, which is enough to disturb the morale of the army, it can constitute this crime. Disturbing the morale of the army is both the result and the purpose here. The perpetrator intentionally disturbs the morale of the army and spreads rumors to confuse people in wartime, which can constitute this crime. Although there is behavior, it is not enough to disturb the morale of the army and does not constitute this crime. For example, a soldier's mother is dying, although it may affect the soldier's psychology, but it will not endanger the stability of the military, so it cannot be punished as this crime. If the perpetrator fabricates rumors based on the intention of committing crimes such as espionage, defection to the enemy, armed rebellion, armed riot and inciting soldiers to flee from the army, which confuses the audience and disturbs the morale of the army, he shall be punished as an implicated offender with a felony. (III) Subject elements: The subject of this crime is a general subject, that is, any natural person who has reached the age of criminal responsibility and has the ability of criminal responsibility can become the subject of this crime. (4) Subjective elements: This crime has direct intention subjectively. That is, the actor knows that what he said is false, which will disturb the morale of the army and disintegrate the fighting spirit, and still publicize and spread it. Some of its motives are fear and boredom of fighting, misleading people through rumors to avoid fighting; Some people are criticized, punished or rewarded for not evaluating their achievements, and mislead people through rumors to vent their anger and revenge.

Legal basis: Article 433 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), whoever spreads rumors to confuse people and shake the morale of the army in wartime shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years; If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years; If the circumstances are especially serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment.