Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 528 Court Session

Led by his assistant with thick black rims, Nan Zhuren and his entourage first arrived at the courthouse entrance.

After a brief handover, the court clerk led the group to their respective seats.

To be honest, although Nan Zhuren has been involved in many criminal cases for various reasons, this is his first time in a courtroom.

Looking around, the judge's bench is at the highest point directly in front of the courtroom, facing the entrance; slightly lower in front of the judge's bench, facing the courtroom, is the clerk's bench.

Behind the clerk's bench, there are two seats side by side: on the left are the prosecutor's and plaintiff's seats, and on the right is the defendant's seat. These two seats face the judge's bench.

These seats were separated by an aisle, behind which was the public gallery.

Nan Zhuren and his group were seated in the front row of the audience section. Turning his head, Nan Zhuren estimated that there were about a hundred seats behind him, which were reserved for other audience members.

At this moment, the plaintiff's seat and the defendant's seat were already occupied; behind them, there was an empty seat, which should be the witness stand where Nan Zhuren would be going later.

Witnesses are only led to the witness stand by the clerk when they are required to testify. At other times, they do not stay in the central seats, but either wait in a special waiting room or in the front row of the audience waiting for their turn.

The spatial distribution of these seats, from front to back, is roughly in the following order: "judge's bench - court clerk's bench - plaintiff's and defendant's bench - witness bench - guardrails and aisles - public gallery".

Square and orderly.

Nan Zhuren guessed that the layout of the indoor seating was designed with some psychological principles in mind. After entering, his mind became clearer, as if he had undergone a weakened version of [emotional readjustment].

In addition, there were scattered bailiffs around, their sharp eyes scanning the surroundings.

With a click, the courtroom doors opened, and groups of people who had been waiting outside entered.

These individuals typically include citizens interested in law, media professionals, law students looking to gain practical experience, intern lawyers seeking to improve their skills, and anyone else interested in court proceedings who has successfully applied.

"Huh?" A young cameraman, who had been granted permission to record, had just sat down and turned on his camera when his eyes suddenly lit up, and he involuntarily pointed the lens at Nan Zhuren, who was looking around.

"What are you doing!" Seeing that the cameraman was engrossed in watching, a media reporter noticed something was wrong and slapped him lightly on the head.

"Distracted at a time like this? Do you know the nature of this case? Do you know how much effort I put into getting this opportunity for us? And now you're daydreaming?"

While scolding her, she leaned close to the camera and said, "I want to see what's making you so... ouch!"

For a fleeting moment, the journalist felt a conflict between his emotions and reason, and thought that it was fine to just keep the camera focused like this.

Fortunately, she quickly found a balance between the two: "No rush, this person is sitting in the front row of the gallery, he'll probably be going up to give a testimony later. I feel like this is a news story... Keep an eye on him for a bit, but our primary task today is to film the entire trial, understand?"

The cameraman nodded repeatedly. For a moment, he seemed to rediscover the feeling he had when he was studying art in school.

Once everyone was seated, it was time for the court hearing to begin.

The bailiffs closed the door again, and Nan Zhuren saw the court clerk stand up and shout, "Please be quiet!"

No one would make a scene or cause trouble at this time.

The court clerk continued, "Now, the court rules are as follows: 1. No audio or video recording or photography is permitted without the court's permission; 2. No one may move around or enter the trial area at will."

"Three..." "Four..."

"..."

"All personnel shall abide by court discipline and maintain court order."

After reading out the court rules, he checked the scene one last time and said, "Please all rise. Please welcome the presiding judge and judges to the courtroom."

A group of three people dressed in judges' robes came into view and took their seats on the bench. Nan Zhuren took a closer look at the middle-aged man sitting in the middle. His clothing and appearance were not particularly outstanding due to the uniformity of the judges' robes and the required demeanor.

Nan Zhuren only remembered that Xia Tian seemed to have mentioned it before—because of the special nature of this case, the court specially appointed the head of the criminal court as the presiding judge for this trial.

This seems to be a good thing for our side.

"Please sit down," the clerk said.

Everyone took their seats, quietly and orderly.

"Reporting to the presiding judge, prosecutor... defendant... defense attorney..." The court clerk added the name and position of each person as they were introduced, "...all have arrived in court."

She then added, "The victim, Nan Zhihao, failed to appear in court despite being summoned."

This gave Nan Zhuren a new piece of information: Nan Zhihao had applied and been approved to appear in court, but was unable to do so at the last minute.

This somewhat explains the anxiety and frustration of Attorney Zhan and the other plaintiffs and victims.

"Court preparations complete, report complete!"

Upon hearing the clerk's last words, the presiding judge of the criminal court, sitting in the center of the bench, nodded.

He raised the gavel and brought it down with a measured touch: "Court is now in session!"

……

"Now we are verifying the information of those appearing in court. The defendant..."

After the judge struck the gavel, the quiet courtroom became even more solemn.

Nan Zhuren listened quietly as the court clerk carried out the final steps of the court preparations, including verifying identity information, announcing the cause of action, the composition of the court personnel, and informing the defendant of their litigation rights.

Meanwhile, Nan Zhuren was also silently processing the information he would be providing in a moment.

Should the legal representative request recusal?

After questioning all the other litigants, the court clerk said, "Since none of the parties have requested recusal, the court's preparatory work is complete, and the court investigation will now begin."

Then I saw the clerk turn a page of the documents in his hand and clear his throat.

"Upon investigation in accordance with the law, it was found that: Between [Month] 20XX and [Month] 20XX, the defendant Wang Zhenhai, along with Zhang Qiang and others, formed a criminal gang engaged in telecommunications and online fraud. This gang illegally obtained the personal information of veterans, used AI technology to replace the defendants' faces with the images of the victims' comrades, and impersonated these comrades to commit fraud through video calls and social media, defrauding nine victims of a total of RMB 167 million..."

(End of this chapter)