Chapter 99: Chapter 99: The Number of Defendants Reaches 69
She was twenty-seven this year. Three years later... she’d be almost thirty.
If Liang Shuqi were sentenced to three years, should she continue to wait for his release? Her parents would definitely force her to find someone else to marry once they heard the news.
If it were one or two years... she could grit her teeth and wait for Liang Shuqi to get out.
It was a very real problem.
She had to consider herself, her parents, and the rest of her family.
"The criminal law stipulates a minimum of three years; no lawyer can reduce it to below three years," Zhang Wei looked at Xiao Fang and emphasized very seriously.
Seeing Xiao Fang’s troubled expression, he thought back to the cases of Lin Zhen and Gao Feng. If Liang Shuqi tried to manipulate things to exonerate himself... his defense strategy would be disrupted once again.
Actually, as a lawyer, especially a criminal defense lawyer, he had seen too many clients like this. After all, when facing sentencing, nobody could truly remain calm. In court, they might make moves that backfire. This would add considerable difficulty to his defense.
"Is there really no way to reduce the sentence to below three years?" Xiao Fang still hadn’t given up and asked again.
Zhang Wei’s mouth twitched. He took a deep breath.
He said very seriously, "Right now, I can only guarantee you that I will do my best to reduce the sentence, but during the trial, you must fully cooperate with me!"
After hearing this, Xiao Fang fell back into her quandary.
On one side was a boyfriend who could be sentenced to more than three years; on the other were her own youth and family. For a moment, she didn’t know if she should continue to hold on.
「The nursing home.」
After posting the last video, Qin Mu’s life had quieted down again. In addition to caring for the elderly, he scoured through legal books when he was free. With his ’Photographic Memory’ skill, he had thoroughly familiarized himself with legal provisions from various fields. He could fluently recite statutes concerning contract law, property law, corporate law, labor law, criminal law, economic law, and other criminal codes. He was a walking encyclopedia of law.
He even thought, should he take the time to study for the bar exam? Then he could be both plaintiff and lawyer in the future.
At the same time, Shen Dao gave him a call. He updated him on the case’s progress. After days of effort, they had identified the individuals responsible for the comments among the eight people Qin Mu had reported for incitement. Never mind that the internet now had a comprehensive real-name registration system; even without it, finding someone wasn’t difficult given their IP and MAC addresses. As long as someone posted online, even if it was from an internet café, they could be tracked down by reviewing the café’s surveillance footage from that specific time.
The internet has never been a lawless realm.
Having obtained solid chains of evidence and confessions from the eight individuals, the Public Security Bureau officially prosecuted these eight people and Liang Shuqi, reporting them to the Jin City Court. The court had now accepted the case. Due to the related nature of the offenses, this case was to be consolidated with the defamation case Qin Mu had previously filed. A joint hearing was set for six days later.
This case would also become the criminal case with the most numerous defendants in Jin City in recent years. There were as many as sixty-nine defendants! Among them, Qin Mu had sued sixty for defamation, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office had charged nine with poisoning.
Afterward, Qin Mu went to the office of his legal advisor, Wang Dachui. He shared the news with him.
"Sixty-nine people?" Wang Dachui’s eyes widened.
He even doubted whether the defendants’ dock could accommodate so many people on the day of the trial...
Qin Mu had indeed told him about reporting people from the comment section, but Wang Dachui had thought it was just one or two. Just like the "Daily English Study" incident when Mr. Li was cyberbullied. But this time, Qin Mu hadn’t let a single one off.
"Last time, I didn’t have much money and didn’t really understand the law, so I was a bit more lenient," Qin Mu said with a smile, a disarmingly ’honest’ expression on his face.
Wang Dachui rolled his eyes. Lenient my ass.
If he remembered correctly, "Daily English Study," due to the viral video and its widespread distribution, had been directly sentenced to three years’ fixed-term imprisonment.
If nothing unexpected happened, among these sixty defendants, quite a few trolls were likely to receive the maximum three-year sentence for defamation.
"Since the trials have already been combined, it will be the usual three-party courtroom hearing this time." Wang Dachui took a deep breath and continued his analysis. "At that time, the public prosecutor, the plaintiff, and the defendants will all attend the trial."
In fact, most criminal cases are initiated by the Public Security Bureau or the Procuratorate, which bring charges against the accused, with the exception of private prosecution cases and cases with significantly minor circumstances. And the high-altitude throwing case involving Gao Feng was considered significantly minor. If it hadn’t been for Qin Mu’s insistence on prosecuting, the Public Prosecutor’s Office wouldn’t have filed a lawsuit, and Gao Feng wouldn’t have gone to jail.
But this particular case involved suspected crimes of poisoning and incitement. The police station had already deployed a large number of officers to arrest the relevant suspects and had transferred the case to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for litigation. The necessary evidence and witness testimonies for the case would all be provided by the police station. Their main role in court would be to act as the plaintiff, testifying and identifying the defendants.
"So, this time during the trial, our focus should be on the defamation charges," Wang Dachui went on. "You’ve already collected the evidence for conviction and sentencing for the defamation charges, and the Procuratorate must have made copies when they filed the case. So, even if these people deleted their comments, it’s useless."
"It’s just not clear whether they’ve hired lawyers or not." At this point, he couldn’t help but get a little excited.
Sixty people becoming defendants... This kind of grand scene was a first for him. Last time, although Qin Mu sued an entire building, the court changed the defendants after finding the person who threw the objects. But this time, it was truly sixty people going to court!
Theoretically, this kind of case could be considered a joint lawsuit, meaning a case with multiple plaintiffs or defendants. This meant it wasn’t necessarily required for all sixty defendants to be present; they could elect a representative to attend the trial on behalf of the others, thus avoiding overcrowding in the courtroom. The same applied to lawyers. They certainly couldn’t have sixty lawyers representing them in court; that would turn the courtroom into a marketplace. Therefore, their best course of action would be to hire the same lawyer for full representation.
However, since Qin Mu had sued all sixty individuals separately, and they had no connection to each other. Even though their cases were consolidated for trial, the court would still have to review each person individually, so they would also need to pay sixty separate sets of lawyer’s fees! Just like Qin Mu, who had paid 870,000 yuan in litigation fees upfront.