BEIJING - Jail terms of over five years were meted out to 72,583 criminals in China during the first six months of 2012, new data revealed on Friday.

Such heavy sentences accounted for 14.33 percent of all those handed out in the period, a year-on-year decrease of 0.56 percentage points, according to the figures released by the Supreme People's Court during a consultation seminar.

In all, 506,456 criminals were sentenced during the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 13.32 percent. That rise came amid a surge of cases, particularly severe ones, the court said.

Furthermore, courts across China filed nearly 6.29 million cases of all kinds of offenses during the first half of 2012, a year-on-year rise of 13 percent.