He rembered it very clearly. Previously, when many middle-aged villagers from Chen Family Village were prosecuted, the spectator seats had been filled with middle-aged won, forcing Zhang Qingyuan and the others to watch the live broadcast in the courtyard. But this ti, at the hearing for the Zhaojia Village case... not a single person ca.
「anwhile.」
Zizhou.
A district court.
The First Criminal Trial Court.
BANG!
The gavel sounded.
After the courtroom rules were announced, the Judgnt Chief continued, "Now, public prosecutor, please read the indictnt and state the details of the case."
At the prosecutor’s bench, one of the prosecutors stood and solemnly read from the indictnt, "On the 12th of this month, a malicious pumpkin-stealing incident occurred in Zhaojia Village, on the outskirts of Zizhou.
"The parties involved in this pumpkin-stealing incident were Hu Wenning, the contractor of the pumpkin patch, and nurous elderly residents of Zhaojia Village, led by Zhao Dezhu.
"After the incident, Hu Wenning first attempted to verbally persuade the elderly, but to no avail. She then called the police. Officers intervened, investigating and diating, eventually persuading Zhao Dezhu and the others.
"However, Zhao Dezhu and the others later harbored intentions of revenge. Unresponsive to attempts at education, they once again stole pumpkins and, in addition, destroyed many of Hu Wenning’s pumpkins.
"Over the following days, Zhao Dezhu and his group returned daily, using carts, woven sacks, scissors, and other tools to steal pumpkins. This caused Hu Wenning imnse financial losses, totaling over 50,000 yuan.
"After stealing the pumpkins, Zhao Dezhu and the others had their younger family mbers transport the pumpkins to town to sell them.
"After a case was filed at the local police station and those selling the pumpkins were lawfully apprehended, Zhao Dezhu and the others gathered a crowd outside the police station...
"This court contends that the actions of Zhao Dezhu and the other 113 elderly individuals violated multiple criminal laws. They are suspected of theft, robbery, destruction of others’ property, and creating disturbances. We request that Zhao Dezhu and the others be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonnt in accordance with the law.
"Furthermore, 65 people from Zhaojia Village, knowing the pumpkins were stolen goods, still illegally sold them. This violated criminal laws, and they are suspected of concealing and hiding criminal proceeds and the gains from such cris. We request that these 65 individuals also be sentenced accordingly..."
For a full ten minutes, the public prosecutor enurated all the charges against Zhao Dezhu and the others, concluding by providing sentencing recomndations to the court.
"Defendants, what do you have to say in response to the public prosecutor’s allegations?"
The Judgnt Chief turned to look at Zhao Dezhu and the other defendants.
In this case, due to the large number of defendants, Zhao Dezhu and two others represented the rest, appearing in court to present their defense.
"This..."
From the defendants’ dock, Zhao Dezhu couldn’t help but glance at Zhang Wei and Wang Dachui beside him.
"Just say what you were told before."
Zhang Wei gave an encouraging look.
"The pumpkins do indeed belong to Hu Wenning, and yes, we took them," Zhao Dezhu said, taking a deep breath and proceeding with the defense as previously instructed. "However, at most, we committed theft, not robbery from Hu Wenning. As for those smashed pumpkins... they were accidentally damaged by individuals..."
This defense strategy had been devised by Zhang Wei.
The public prosecutor had accused them of four cris: theft, robbery, destruction of others’ property, and creating disturbances.
The first three charges were all related to the theft of the pumpkins.
The cri of theft, if the circumstances were minor and the amount involved small, carried a sentence of less than three years’ fixed-term imprisonnt. If the amount was substantial, the sentence would be three to ten years of fixed-term imprisonnt.
As for robbery, the minimum sentence was three to ten years of fixed-term imprisonnt. The act of robbery itself constituted this cri. If additional acts such as breaking into hos, robbery on public transportation, or causing serious injury during the robbery occurred, then the sentence would be ten years of fixed-term imprisonnt or more.
Fortunately, they had taken the pumpkins from the patch, not from Hu Wenning’s ho. Otherwise, their sentence would be more severe.
Then there was the charge of destroying others’ property. Following Zhang Wei’s instructions, Zhao Dezhu also sought to downplay this, arguing that the damage occurred accidentally during transport.
"Both parties have stated their positions," the Judgnt Chief said. "To summarize, the point of contention is that the defendants believe their actions constituted only theft and creating disturbances, not robbery or intentional destruction of others’ property."
In the courtroom, the Judgnt Chief spoke decisively, quickly summarizing the trial’s main focus.
"Next, we will proceed with the trial of Zhao Dezhu and the other 113 individuals suspected of theft, robbery, intentional destruction of property, and creating disturbances. Both parties, please focus on these key points as we proceed with litigation.
"Now we enter the stage of presenting evidence and cross-examination."
No sooner had these words been spoken than the public prosecutor stood up, presenting a series of evidentiary materials. This included surveillance footage, witness statents, body cara footage from local police officers, and eyewitness testimonies from the scene. The evidence was very comprehensive.
"This is surveillance footage from parts of Hu Wenning’s pumpkin patch, clearly showing Zhao Dezhu and others repeatedly entering the patch and committing theft.
"This footage is from the dayti. When Hu Wenning caught the elderly individuals stealing pumpkins, she recorded a video with her phone. It clearly shows Zhao Dezhu and the others forcibly taking pumpkins away, even in her presence.
"This is nightti surveillance footage. It shows Zhao Dezhu, Zhao Wangquan, Zhao Tiange, and others arriving at the pumpkin patch ard with machetes and deliberately destroying pumpkins. The total damage amounted to 8,200 yuan."
The two public prosecutors stepped forward one by one, submitting the evidence they were responsible for and displaying it to the court. Each piece of evidence was legally valid and served to prove that the defendants’ actions had violated criminal law, constituting the four aforentioned charges.
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