Su Bai had finished collecting the relevant evidence.
In this case, the supposed victims were three female students.
One of them, a student named Wu Yan, had a maternal uncle in the Law Enforcement Department who oversaw criminal matters.
Another student, He Juan, had a paternal uncle who worked in the Supervisory Department.
Both men had participated to some extent in the early stages of the case.
Under the relevant provisions of procedural law, when law enforcement personnel had a direct conflict of interest involving a party,
they were required to recuse themselves.
Such conflicts of interest referred to clear relationships involving kinship, blood ties, or personal acquaintances.
They also included other relationships that affected the law or the impartiality of law enforcement.
The presiding judge had raised the issue of recusal in court and requested that it be set aside for now.
Was that because he could not determine whether those conflicts of interest had affected the first-instance trial?
If that was the case, setting it aside for now was understandable.
Su Bai did not argue much about it.
There were no concrete findings from an investigation into the matter yet.
This matter alone could not directly establish that the verdict was connected to procedural violations.
Su Bai expressed his understanding of the presiding judge's position.
At the judges' bench, Jiang Feng continued presiding over the proceedings concerning the case.
"According to the appellant's statement just now, no objective facts can establish that Xia Mingyuan molested or harassed the victims."
"Could you elaborate on that?"
"Certainly."
Su Bai nodded and began his statement. "In the first-instance proceedings of this case,"
"the findings underlying the verdict were based primarily on the victims' statements."
"According to those statements, Xia Mingyuan harmed the three female student victims, committing acts ranging from