Jordan was impressed with his client\u2019s appearance \u2013 as always. Eleni was a space ship captain and she looked like one, calm and confident and impressive. Her space ship captain\u2019s dignity was not lessened by the mere fact that she was still held in custody and the police and prison officers were a little bit overzealous in their following of the regulations \u2013 meaning they brought her to the hearing handcuffed and without shoelaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She sat next to him and grinned. Jordan had just enough time to check with her how she was: was she treated well? (Yes.) Was she feeling okay? (Yes.) Was there any problem at all? (No, all was fine given the circumstances, and she was coping.) Did she answer any of the investigators\u2019 questions? (Of course not, she referred them to her log and refused to say anything else without Jordan by her side.) Then the judge came to the room and they had to stand up and stop talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe purpose of this hearing is to read the charges to the defendant, enter the defendant\u2019s plea, and decide on the bail.\u201d Entering a plea<\/em>. Now, this was Jordan\u2019s least favourite time of the Flotilla hearings and court cases. How ridiculous.<\/em> Why the hell did Flotilla insist on forcing people to enter a plea this early in the proceedings? In civilian courts, it usually took months of investigation and there was a solid, reassuringly thick dossier with evidence, photos, witness statements, various protocols, expert opinions, all the usual stuff. One had a look, assessed their position and decided what to say. But no, Flotilla had to do it their way. The Flotilla officers are honest and would never lie,<\/em> that was the Admiral\u2019s official excuse. Bollocks<\/em>, that was Jordan\u2019s fierce reply, but unfortunately no one ever asked his opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading the charges started with Eleni\u2019s full name, which the judge got right, and apart from that brought no surprises: violation of Articles 113 to 116, 126 and 165 of the Interplanetary Convention by either manipulating or directly forcing certain Alix Kadijk, a citizen of Iokasta, to leave Iokasta, and bringing Ms Kadijk to Earth without Ms Kadijk\u2019s consent and against her will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eleni listened to the charges with a face that was almost absolutely indifferent; only her slightly raised eyebrows gave her away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDo you understand the charges, captain?\u201d the judge asked when he was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do, Sir,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, the judge warned her that the maximum penalty for the crime was death penalty. She confirmed she was aware of it and understood the gravity of the alleged crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then, plea time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot guilty, Sir,\u201d Eleni said with utter confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How very different this was from their first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first time they were sitting here like this, things were not so smooth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jordan was impressed with his client\u2019s appearance \u2013 as always. Eleni was a space ship captain and she looked like one, calm and confident and impressive. Her space ship captain\u2019s dignity was not lessened by the mere fact that she was still held in custody and the police and prison officers were a little bit … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-93","page","type-page","status-publish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrapecharova.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}