Chapter 112 Suzie on the stand

Chapter 112  Suzie on the stand (Part-I)

After Daniel was done presenting his side, the audience began to discuss among themselves the major points from the hearing and began to issue their own verdicts on whether Abir was innocent or not. And no doubt, there was a unanimous opinion that Abir was innocent, and it was the prosecution playing dirty.

"Your Honour," with all the ridicule coming his way, the prosecutor didn’t wait for the Judge to get done with Abir’s case and wanted to get started with Suzie's case right away.

"Shut up... Shut up... Not a single word before I ask you to yap," as soon as the prosecutor's voice fell into his ears, the Judge, without any regard for the audience, lashed out at the prosecutor. The case against Abir had no substance whatsoever. From the look of things, it was not Abir but the police and the prosecution who were high on weed. These idiots could not even investigate the facts that lay in front of them, begging to be investigated.

The Judge was very much worried about how the media was going to serve the people. Since this transparency bullshit, the media has been allowed to attend the court proceedings and provide minute to minute updates outside. The incompetency of the prosecution with media houses spicing things up may not go well with the people.

But what troubled him the most was the fact that he had to preside over such a case. He had been very vocal regarding some reforms, good or bad in the long run, he didn't know. But he had been consistent on his stand, but this case so far was going to make him a laughing stock in his own fraternity.

In the beginning, he didn't care much about who was right and who was wrong. For him, it was always the search for nice arguments from both sides where both sides are giving their all to trump the other. But everything was a flop show. Now, to avoid any more embarrassment to the judicial institution, all he wanted was to punish someone. And since Abir was out of the question, he really hoped for the accusations against Suzie to turn out to be true so he could punish her at least. It was not ethical, but somewhere in his heart, he did feel it.

It took him some time to calm down and throw these rebellious thoughts at the back of his head. Rubbing his eyes, he took a deep breath and addressed the defence and the prosecution, "We will have another hearing on Abir one week from now. If the prosecution could not bring anything new and substantial in front of the court, the court will deliver its verdict then."

"Is that acceptable?" The Judge looked down towards the prosecutor through the gaps of his glasses and asked.

"Yes, Your Honour," The prosecutor was quick to agree.

Then the Judge turned toward Daniel, who also nodded, agreeing to the proposition. It was something he had already expected.

Since the two parties agreed, the Judge gave them a week's time to work on the case.

After writing down the necessary details from Abir's hearing, the Judge turned toward the audience.

"We are now going to hear the case Suzie Bekhti vs the state, Case Number 2022/01/K-1018. Since the Defence and the Prosecutor are the same from the last case, the hearing is in continuation." The Judge addressed the audience and then gestured toward the prosecutor, "Prosecution may begin. And don't mess it up," the Judge mumbled the last part.

The prosecutor got up again to proceed with the case, "Your Honour, Miss Bekhti here has been charged with Hit and Run, Driving under Influence, rash driving, over speeding and misbehaviour with an on-duty officer." The prosecutor read out all the charges against Suzie, "The prosecution proposes two years of imprisonment, ten thousand dollars in fine and a hundred thousand dollars in compensation to the victim of the Hit and Run." The prosecutor was careful and diligent with his words. Maybe he heard the jibe from the Judge before he began.

"Your Honour, the medical report of Miss Bekhti are in front of you, which clearly shows that she was slightly higher than the permissible limit of alcohol. With your permission, I would also like to show you the CCTV footage that the defence is so fond of." The prosecutor said, taking a quick jibe at Daniel.

As the video played, it showed a man trying to cross the road, and suddenly a car came ramming into him. It was a short ten-second clip, but it was enough evidence against Suzie as she could clearly be seen through the windshield of the car.

"Your Honour, this is all from the prosecution," the prosecutor said and walked back to his seat but not before giving a smug look to Daniel. Even the Judge was fairly satisfied this time.

"Defence," the Judge looked at Daniel and asked him to come forward with his opening remark.

"Yes, Your Honour," now that it was his turn, Daniel walked in front of the Judge to present his case, "Looks like my colleague here has really taken my words to his heart. I hope he would have taken your words as well and be a bit more competent," Daniel said, "Well, jokes aside. I need to burst a few bubbles again. I just hope the prosecution won't go back complaining about me to his mommy." Daniel continued to roast the prosecutor again and again.

"Now, Your Honor! For the case of Suzie Bekhti as well, the prosecution submitted several pieces of evidence, but they failed to look into the most important fact, again."

'Now what?' the prosecutor thought in his mind.

"And what is that?" The Judge asked.

Daniel looked toward the prosecutor with a smirk and said, "The victim, Your Honor! The victim."

"What's wrong with the victim?" The Judge was curious again.

"Well, Your Honor! The prosecution failed to look into the history of the victim who goes by the name Boris. I submit to you the evidence". Daniel gave the Judge the sheet in his hand.

As the Judge went through the sheet, Daniel began to reveal the details of what was written there, "As you can see, the victim in the past has been charged with multiple cases of theft, fraud, blackmail and many more. He has been in and out of prison during these years. This very fact creates a possibility that the victim deliberately jumped in front of the car of my client in order to extort money from her. Since my client is a well-known celebrity, there was a high probability that she would try to sort this out of court. But his plans backfired when we decided to go through the legal way."

"Objection, Your Honor! These are mere speculations by the defence. The defence is trying to write some kind of conspiracy novel here through his imagination," the prosecutor was losing it with each passing remark of Daniel. There was much on the line here for him. He could not afford to lose this case, "Your Honour being a thief in the past does not mean that you can't mend your ways and live an honourable life going forward. The defence here can't deprive him of leading a respectable life just to suit their agenda." By the end, the prosecutor was almost screaming.

Everyone in the room was taken back by this sudden passionate outburst from the prosecutor. With their eyes wide open, every head was turned towards him.

"Is the man in question your father," the Judge finally broke his silence and asked the prosecutor.

"No," the prosecutor shook his head.

"Then, maybe your uncle?" The Judge guessed again.

"No," the prosecutor denied.

"Relative?"

"No."

"Lover?" The Judge asked again.

"No… not at all." This time, the prosecutor was a bit more stern in his reply.

"Then bastard, why are you being so passionate about it? Interrupting every second," the Judge once again threw his hammer at the prosecutor. And this time, he was pretty much spot-on. The hammer was well on its way to hitting him in the groin, but thanks to the table in front of him, it bounced off it and hit him in the stomach instead.

The impact was so hard that the prosecutor sank back in his chair, groaning in pain. His assistant hurriedly stood up next to him, whispering something in his ear.

The Judge turned towards the guards, "Stand guard by him. And if he even thinks of standing up, break his shoulder." The Judge had enough of the prosecutor.

Getting the instructions from the Judge, the guards obliged and moved to either side of the prosecutor.

After the shuffling of guards was done, the Judge drank a glass full of water, and taking a deep breath, once again turned toward Daniel, "Continue."

"Yes, Your Honour," Daniel nodded, "Like the previous case, the prosecution collected the original copy of the CCTV footage from all the cameras nearby, and we were not lucky enough to find any kind of backup for those. So Kudos to the prosecution for really making it hard for us," Daniel looked at the prosecutor, who was better now but still rubbing his stomach.

"Even Suzie didn't have a memory card in her dashcam, so that was a dead end as well for us," Daniel continued.

"So you don't have any evidence supporting your claims against the victim?" The Judge asked.

"As a matter of fact, we do have something, Your Honour," Daniel was all smiles when he said that.

"Are you itching for a beating as well?" The Judge was irked by all the time Daniel was taking to build the context and trying to make it sound all mysterious.

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