By Chen Yaru and Yong Jian
WENZHOU, Aug. 6 -- A man surnamed He from Wenzhou City in east China’s Zhejiang Province, broke the national defense optical cable buried under a fishpond when he was clearing the fishpond. Although previously he had been informed that there was a national defense optical underneath, he did not take it seriously. On July 29, the People's Procuratorate of Yongjia County, Wenzhou City, filed a public prosecution against him on suspicion of negligence causing damages to military communications.
An accident occurred during the construction of Mr. He's engineering company in August 2020, which caused a large amount of mud to flow into the fishpond of a man surnamed Xia. At the request of Mr. Xia, Mr. He drove an excavator to clean up the fishpond on November 18 last year. Even though Mr. He was informed that there was a national defense optical cable buried under the fishpond and there was also a national defense optical cable warning sign next to the fishpond, Mr. He did not take the necessary precautions and broke the national defense optical fiber cable under the fishpond. As a result, the communication was cut for 310 minutes, causing a direct economic loss of about 450,000 yuan and an indirect loss of about 130,000 yuan.
The Yongjia County Prosecutor found that the defendant Mr. He knew that there was a national defense fiber optic cable under the fishpond, but did not work carefully, which resulted in the interruption of important military communications. This constituted negligence causing damages to the military communication crime as stipulated in the second paragraph of Article 369 of the Criminal Law.