Chapter 144: Chapter 120 What if They Refuse to Go to Jail_3
After speaking, he took a step back and pointed to Zhang Tao behind him. Understanding the cue, Zhang Tao quickly stepped forward and handed the indictment and other documents to Zhou Lin.
These documents, which Qin Mu had instructed Zhang Tao to bring in their entirety, served as evidence sufficient to substantiate the criminal acts and meet the conditions for filing a case.
"Three... charges?"
Zhou Lin briefly glanced at the cause of action on the indictment and gulped once more.
As a receptionist in the case-filing center, she handled more than ten cases every week, the majority of which were civil litigation. She would occasionally encounter one or two private criminal prosecutions like this one, but they always involved single, specific charges. She had never seen anything as preposterous as filing three charges at once.
At that moment, she realized this case was far from ordinary and began to review it meticulously. Her main responsibility was to perform the initial screening of indictments submitted by visitors, deciding whether they complied with regulations and met case-filing criteria. If an indictment was clearly non-compliant, she had the authority to reject it.
However, after reviewing the documents Zhang Tao submitted, even she, an onlooker, felt her blood pressure rise indignantly. The property deed clearly showed Zhang Tao as the owner of the house, yet he had never lived in it for a single day! For three years, a middle-aged couple had illegally occupied it, refusing to return it!
Zhang Tao, looking nervously at Zhou Lin, suddenly said, "Yesterday, they even called me, saying that if I gave them half of the money from selling the house, they would agree to move out. I recorded the conversation. Should I submit that as well?"
Zhou Lin was taken aback for a moment. Just as she was about to respond, she saw Qin Mu’s eyes suddenly light up.
He exclaimed excitedly, "My dear nephew, are you serious? This is perfect! We can additionally charge them with extortion!"
Immediately thereafter, Qin Mu took an indictment template from the filing center and began filling it out on the spot. Before long, a brand new indictment was completed and placed in front of Zhou Lin.
Zhou Lin looked with a somewhat perplexed expression at the indictment, which now listed four criminal offenses. Just a short while ago, another charge had been added.
Furthermore, she glanced at Qin Mu and the fifty-something-year-old Zhang Tao, a feeling that something was off about the generational standing between the two.
With mixed emotions, she then reviewed all the evidence Zhang Tao had submitted one more time.
She nodded and said, "The indictment is in order; there’s no problem, and the documents are quite complete. You can go back and wait for the case-filing notification."
Zhang Tao, still uncertain, couldn’t help asking, "After the case is filed, will I be able to get my house back?"
Zhou Lin gave him a sidelong glance and said in a peculiar tone, "Once the case is filed, it won’t be a matter of whether you can get your house back. They are facing criminal charges. With these four charges, they’re going to spend a long time in prison."
Zhang Tao swallowed hard, the implications slowly dawning on him.
Criminal charges... It seemed they could lead to prison time. If the other party was locked up, they naturally wouldn’t be able to continue occupying his house!
And these four charges Qin Mu had identified... He had never even considered this angle before; he just thought it was a civil dispute where the other party was being shameless.
But then, another issue occurred to him, and he couldn’t help asking, "What if they refuse to go to prison after the verdict? They didn’t take the last judgment seriously..."
Upon hearing this, Qin Mu’s face darkened. It was evident that Zhang Tao had indeed been tormented quite severely over the past few years.
The enforcement of civil and criminal judgments is starkly different. Civil judgments require active cooperation from the parties involved and possess a degree of voluntariness, allowing offenders to evade punishment through various unscrupulous means. Criminal judgments, however, are inherently compulsory, leaving no choice for the convicted party.
「Nursing Home.」
After submitting the indictment, Qin Mu and Zhang Qingyuan returned. The other seniors gathered around when they heard the news.
"How did it go? Was the case filed? Will there be any excitement to witness this time?"
"That middle-aged couple is truly despicable; the best outcome would be if they’re put away!"
"When does the trial start? I’m thinking of buying some sunflower seeds and going to the spectator’s gallery..."
"They even demanded half the money from selling the house? I’ve lived for over seventy years, and now I finally understand what true shamelessness means!"
After listening to Zhang Qingyuan’s recount, Li Weiguo, Song Tiancheng, and the other seniors were so angered they were fuming, glaring, and shouting curses.
Every action of the middle-aged couple was beyond everyone’s expectations and enough to make one’s blood boil. It was exasperating.
The Zhang Family, father and son, were both honest folks. They had always been law-abiding, a common trait among most ordinary people. Faced with such scoundrel behavior, and with normal methods bearing no fruit, they could only resign themselves to their misfortune, continuously bullied by them.
Fortunately, this time, Qin Mu had identified the criminal nature of their actions, creating an opportunity to have them incarcerated!
"Xiao Qin, quickly tell us, with four charges, how many years could they get?"
"If it’s an average of five years per charge, would that add up to twenty years or so?"
"Twenty years? Isn’t that a bit too harsh?"
"What’s so harsh about that? When they were occupying the Old Zhang Family’s house, did they even think about others?"
The seniors looked at Qin Mu, their curiosity suddenly skyrocketing. They eagerly asked, desperate to know how the case would unfold.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment and then began to analyze seriously, "Sentences can’t simply be added together. Although there are four charges, two of them can be attributed to the same criminal act. In such cases, the sentencing principle is to apply the penalty for the most serious of these offenses."