Your Honour,
Defence moves that charges against my client be dismissed for the following reasons:
REASON 1: These charges were brought in July 2011, many, many months after the alleged offenses, for purely political reasons: to justify the exclusion of JAL from the Regional Assembly. Their political nature can be demonstrated by the timing and trigger: the charges were brought only when JAL applied to join the RA, that application was rejected by Felasia (the then speaker) and that rejection was challenged.
REASON 2: There have been numerous procedural failures in the trial, and JAL’s rights under the Bill of Rights have been violated many times. In October 2010 rules of evidence and procedure were adopted by the region. Yet from the outset the JAL trial ignored those rules. The defence team cooperated with the court to the full, yet even with the declaration of a mistrial and the starting all over again of proceedings, the time has come to declare that after nine months of hearings there is nobody who comes to this trial objectively and without prejudice.
With relation to the violation of JAL’s rights, I would cite the following rights:
“5. All Nations of The North Pacific have the right to be protected against the abuse of powers by any official of a government authority of the region.” – The trigger to this trial was an abuse of power. As was JAL’s later “stripping” of his RA membership by Grimalkin and suspension from the RA by Mahaj. All of these actions had no basis whatsoever in our laws, and constituted an abuse of power.
“Any Nation of The North Pacific has the right to request the recall of any official of a government authority of the region in accordance with this Constitution, that is deemed to have participated in such acts.” Although not a recall as such but the prelude to such an act, At the same time as complaint was made against JAL, a complaint was filed with the Attorney General concerning the actions of Felasia. JAL has been pursued with vigour and venom through the court; the complaint against Felasia was nor even acknowledged and remains on the books.
“No Nation shall be held to answer for a crime in a manner not prescribed by this Constitution or the Legal Code.” I think we can all agree this right has been pretty much shattered in this trial.
“No Nation shall be subjected to being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense.” Again, this could be argued, but the defence would maintain that after one mistrial and two (overturned) dismissals of charges my client is de facto in a double jeopardy situation. (the first was overturned because the appeal to the bill of rights second clause was deemed illegal and the second after lobbying by the prosecution on a technicality of timing)
“No Nation shall ever be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against itself.” This was broken by justice Cakatoa, an action for which he has publically (to his credit) apologised.
“When charged with criminal acts, Nations of The North Pacific shall have a fair, impartial, and public trial before a neutral and impartial judicial officer.” Little about this trial has been fair. Justices have made up laws as they went along, including introducing to the region laws on contempt. A justice has attempted to incite the defence team into committing contempt of court (for which he was censured by a later justice). I leave it to the court to decide whether the length of these proceedings, and the way they have been conducted has made for a “fair and impartial” trial. Concerning the impartiality of judges, I would prefer not to post on that in a public thread. Should you wish my thoughts on that, please contact me.
REASON 3: the length of time and the conduct of the trial to date make it impossible for my client to have a truly fair trial. A motion to dismiss made to the delegate was supported by two justices who had presided over this trial. My client has already, by the dragging on of this hearing, been given disproportionate punishment.
There is more that could be said, but this post is too long already.
We move to dismiss.
