Chapter 894: Chapter 350: Scalpers Emerge, Flipping Spectator Tickets
After repeated interrogations.
Shen Dao finally understood the full story of what the seven people had confessed.
So it turned out.
After the seven brought the fish home, they discovered the giant salamander in the bucket.
Zhang Chunhua was the first to recognize it.
And.
She also noticed that this giant salamander was already "pregnant," its belly bulging.
As if it was in the incubation period.
But Qi Lianglei said that no one knew they had caught a giant salamander.
He also said that salamander eggs were very nutritious.
So...
They schemed to divide those eggs and eat them.
All seven people got a share.
Everyone had a portion.
"I didn’t expect... this giant salamander to actually be carrying eggs."
Looking at the interrogation statements of the seven, Shen Dao’s gaze flickered slightly.
His expression was somewhat complicated.
After his all-night interrogation.
The facts related to the case had basically been clarified.
The seven all confessed without hesitation.
They explained all the criminal facts.
The seven of them definitely constituted the crime of endangering endangered wild animals.
And the sentencing standard for this crime...
Is determined based on the degree of impact the conduct has on endangered wild animals and the extent of economic loss.
The giant salamander is a national second-class protected animal.
Especially wild giant salamanders, which are on the verge of extinction and extremely rare.
The giant salamander caught by Qi Lianglei and the others...
Also had eggs in its belly, with huge potential economic value.
Specifically...
The relevant fisheries department needed to estimate and assess the loss their conduct caused to the ecological environment and biodiversity, before sentencing could be determined.
In short.
The prison terms for these few people would not be low, at least not within the range for suspended sentences.
...
Two days later.
The nursing home.
Qin Mu was chatting with the elderly when he suddenly received a call from the court.
They notified him of the date for the next hearing.
It was set for five days later, for another court session.
They told him to arrive at the courtroom on time.
"They figured it out this fast?"
Qin Mu was quite surprised.
With this kind of case...
Because of the lack of physical evidence, it is somewhat difficult to clarify everything.
However...
Thinking of Qi Lianglei and the other six, he quickly felt at ease.
Under police interrogation, many criminals can’t hold out and end up confessing everything.
Qi Lianglei and the seven were just ordinary people.
Even if they coordinated their statements...
They couldn’t fool the police.
Everything they had done would be dug out.
Many people think the lies they fabricate are flawless, but they underestimate the police’s interrogation abilities.
All lies...
Have to be patched up with facts, and the more you patch, the more loopholes appear.
"Another hearing in five days?"
When the elderly at the nursing home learned of this news, they became excited again.
At last.
After waiting and waiting, they had another live-streamed trial to look forward to.
They only hoped...
That this time Qi Lianglei and the others could be made to bear the punishment they deserved.
"So did they end up eating the giant salamander or not?"
"I think they must have. I heard that giant salamander meat is really tonic and very tender. A lot of people eat wild giant salamander."
"I remember that decades ago, you could see this kind of fish everywhere in little creeks, and now it’s actually become an endangered species."
"It’s all trouble caused by eating. If it didn’t taste good, there’s no way it would have gone extinct this fast."
"..."
Everyone sat in the courtyard.
Chatting away.
The topic gradually shifted from Qi Lianglei and the others to the problem of species extinction.
Besides the giant salamander...
There are also Chinese sturgeon, Yangtze alligators, and many other species that have almost been eaten into oblivion in recent years.
Even though bans have been repeatedly issued.
There are still many people brazenly engaging in poaching and illegal hunting.
No trade, no killing.
Ultimately...
It’s all because of the appetites of the rich that these species have been eaten away.
Ordinary people...
Might go their entire lives without ever actively catching a giant salamander to eat.
"Up, I heard there’s a new case in Jin City recently?"
Qin Mu was chatting with everyone when he suddenly received a message from Qing Lan.
Qin Mu was taken aback for a moment.
He didn’t expect Qing Lan to be so well informed.
If he remembered correctly...
Qing Lan should still be streaming in Zizhou right now.
"My grandpa told me. He said the whole of Jin City is buzzing, and everyone is talking about this case now."
Qing Lan explained, then asked, "Up, can you reveal any inside story about this case?"
She herself was from Jin City.
She had just gotten off a phone call with her grandfather at home.
And happened to hear her grandfather talking about this matter.
Releasing animals upstream and then people netting them downstream—this kind of vile behavior...
Made her furious as well.
But she also knew that most people, when they run into something like this, really don’t have any good way to deal with it.
But...
This group just happened to run into bad luck and bumped right into Qin Mu, this "disaster star."
And on top of that...
They even wanted to sue Qin Mu to "defend their rights," making such a huge fuss that everyone in Jin City knew about it.
"The case will continue in court five days from now. Just watch it online then. As for inside information, I’ll turn it into material later."
Qin Mu shrugged.
Keeping his mouth tightly shut.
He didn’t reveal any insider information.
As for this case now...
it was being quietly watched by a lot of people in Jin City.
The specifics still had to be based on the court’s judgment.
In fact.
With things having developed to this point, it was no longer up to him.
The court had discovered new criminal facts and could only follow procedure and sentence according to the law.
...
Jin City.
Quite a few people had also seen the court’s announcement that the retrial would be held in five days.
The news media...
rushed in right behind, frantically riding the wave of the hotspot, scrambling to report.
For a time.
The people of Jin City were all talking about this case.
The heat that had finally cooled off for two days flared up again.
"They figured it out this fast? What’s the economic value of one giant salamander, does anyone know?"
"Heh, I specifically consulted a lawyer in Jin City. A giant salamander actually isn’t that expensive. If you only catch one, it’s no big deal—at most a fine or short-term detention and the like."
"So light a sentence? But how do you calculate the ecological damage caused by catching a giant salamander?"
"They weren’t deliberately targeting giant salamanders. They probably won’t get a very heavy sentence, right?"
"..."
The people of Jin City.
What they talked about most over tea and after meals was Qin Lianglei and the others.
Some people used them as gossip material.
But the fishing guys...
were a bit shaken.
They started pulling all-nighters to familiarize themselves with those endangered wild animals, afraid that one day they’d accidentally hook one too.
Hooking one wasn’t even the main problem; the real fear was that they’d end up eating it.
It was said that many endangered wild animals now carried chips and tags.
People from wildlife protection stations could log their movement routes.
Basically, as long as someone wanted to check...
they would definitely be able to trace it.
Take Qin Lianglei and the others, for example: they thought no one knew, but in the end they were still found out.
"Yesterday a buddy of mine hooked a fish that looked really weird and just took it straight home."
"Weird-looking? How weird? The weirder the fish, the heavier the sentence."
"For anglers, the scariest thing isn’t going home empty-handed, it’s accidentally hooking a ’do-life-without-parole beast.’"
"The best move at a time like that is to hurry up and take the fish to the relevant wildlife protection station."
"Too dangerous. These days even fishing isn’t safe."
"Me, I’m not worried at all. I’ve blanked eight days in a row—there’s no way I’m going to hook any of those bizarre creatures."
"..."
In the fishing chat groups.
One stone stirred up a thousand ripples.
Lots of people were frantically forwarding posts, cramming overnight on information about endangered wild animals.
Terrified they’d also crash and burn and become a negative example.
...
At the same time.
Legal Pioneer Law Firm.
Zhang Wei had just finished a meeting.
He happened to see a news push from a local media outlet.
"The Hearing Will Resume in Five Days: What Verdict Awaits the Seven Defendants?"
After reading the news.
Zhang Wei’s mouth twitched slightly.
A lot of bad memories surfaced.
Fortunately this case had nothing to do with their firm.
With clients like that, any lawyer would break down.
"Illegal fishing of aquatic products, crime of endangering endangered wild animals, and the crime of misappropriation..."
Then.
Zhang Wei began carefully analyzing the actions of Qin Lianglei and the other six.
The crime of misappropriation was a private prosecution offense.
It was brought by Qin Mu.
While the other two were prosecuted by the public prosecution organ.
As long as there was sufficient evidence to prove that the fish they caught belonged to wild resources, they constituted the crime of illegal fishing of aquatic products.
However...
The number of fish they netted wasn’t large, only seven buckets.
According to the Criminal Law.
For offenders who violate the crime of illegal fishing of aquatic products, the usual penalties are community correction or fines.
And they are ordered to release a certain number of aquatic organisms back into the water to help restore the ecological environment.
For example.
If they caught 1,000 wild carp, then besides the administrative fine, they would also have to release 2,000 back, in order to promote the river’s ecological recovery.
The crime of endangering endangered wild animals, however, was relatively more serious.
It required them to bear greater criminal responsibility.
After all...
Each endangered wild animal lost is a huge loss and can’t be replenished simply by releasing more into the wild.
"Have you heard? The defense lawyers for Qin Lianglei and the others have thrown in the towel."
"You mean the legal aid lawyers who defended them last time? If it were me, I’d quit too. Who knows when you’ll get screwed over by these defendants."
"With Qin Mu sitting on the other side, the risk is way too high."
"Not making a single cent—just not worth taking such a big risk."
"..."
All of a sudden.
Zhang Wei noticed that the Jin City local lawyers’ group chat he was in was buzzing about the case in five days.
This time...
unlike previous cases, not a single lawyer was scrambling to take it.
Mainly because Qin Lianglei and the other six were too stingy and refused to pay a high fee.
As a result...
a lot of lawyers treated them like the plague.
Even the legal aid lawyers chose to toss the brief back.
Barring any surprises...
before the next hearing, Qin Lianglei and the others would have to reapply for appointed legal aid counsel.
...
Time crept forward.
Five days passed in a flash.
On the surface, Jin City was calm and unruffled...
but with this day’s arrival, undercurrents were surging.
At the entrance of Jin City Court, several hundred onlookers had gathered early in the morning.
The seats in the gallery...
were even harder to get than tickets to a hit show, and scalpers specializing in flipping gallery passes had appeared.
They were shouting at the courthouse gate at the top of their lungs: "Three hundred yuan for a gallery ticket, first come first served!"
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