Chapter 345: The verdict: Finding the defendants' criminal conduct established!
This time, there were ample factual grounds to open a case directly accusing Wu Yan and the others of making false accusations.
The process moved very quickly from opening the case to bringing a public prosecution, proceeding straight to trial.
In this trial, Wu Yan and the others were prosecuted for false accusation and framing.
Under Article 243 of the Criminal Law, the offense was false accusation and framing.
Fabricating facts and evidence to falsely accuse someone, with the intent of having them held criminally liable, carried a sentence of up to three years' imprisonment in serious cases.
Of course, there was another special qualification concerning this offense.
False accusation and framing required establishing subjective intent.
If someone had not deliberately or intentionally framed another person, but had instead made an unintentional mistaken accusation or an inaccurate report,
this offense did not apply.
At this point, it was necessary to understand what constituted a mistaken accusation.
According to the guidance and application provided by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, false accusations and mistaken accusations differed in subjective intent.
The latter involved no subjective intent.
The former involved deliberately framing someone else, intending to have them subjected to criminal punishment.
In terms of evidence, Su Bai now had ample evidence in hand.
It was essentially enough to establish that Wu Yan and the others had made their accusations with deliberate intent.
During the defense proceedings,
Wu Yan and the others, as the defendants, could only argue that theirs had been a mistaken accusation to establish their innocence.
Put plainly-
in the face of Su Bai's accusations, they needed to counter them by showing that Wu Yan and the others had not acted with subjective intent.
But judging by the available evidence,
Su