The Supposed Terrorist

Chapter 6

9th September, 2023.

Loathing and judgemental pairs of eyes seared into the back of my neck as I sat in the chair. Artem was sitting at my left, his focus was on the little notepad kept on the wooden table. He twirled the pen with his fingers and made another stroke in the flowchart he was drawing.

"We know what happened before 2017, and we know what's happening in 2023," he muttered, adding a question mark on the page. "What happened between those two years is the real question."

"You are working hard," I said, tilting my head sideways.

He gave me a cool look. "It's my job."

I glanced over his shoulder to the other party. Cunningham was moving his hands frantically, explaining something to his assistant lawyer. My eyes went to the seats on which the common public sat. They whispered something among themselves, occasionally pointing a finger or two at me.

"The judge should be here any minute, right?" I turned my head back to the front.

"Yes. How are you so calm?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Sorry, I am late." A man about 24 scraped the chair and took a seat beside Artem. He was thin, his brown hair combed to the side and had a light stubble on the face. "The traffic was bad."

"The judge hasn't arrived yet, you are good," Artem replied. "Rico, this is Connor, my assistant lawyer, he has been handling the research side of the case."

Connor smiled politely and shook hands with me. His smile wiped off as he acknowledged Artem again, in a voice hushed that I couldn't make out.

The judge entered the courtroom. Everyone stood up and sat down after he took his seat in the center top. He read through the papers on his desk from under his spectacles and asked the defense to make the opening statement after the prosecution had finished.

Artem cleared his throat, standing up. "Your honor, my full name is Artem Wing, representing the defendant in this case. My client, Rico Wayland, was accused of placing bombs on three sites and arrested for it.

The accusations, along with being baseless, are disproven wrong by the simple facts of this case. The evidence from 15th may, 12th june and 1st july of 2023 show that the bomb placements were done by three men, clearly not her. Both the prosecution and defense have agreed on that. For this reason, I would like for the decision to be in the favor of Rico Wayland."

Cunningham got up. "Your Honor, Mister Wing does not seem to get the weight of this situation. This is not the average civil dispute. We are talking about terrorist activities here. It is justified to want hard proof for her innocence."

"The accusations," Artem interjected. "had no ground from the very beginning. You cannot just choose a person, charge them however you please, and then ask them to prove their innocence."

"Keeping aside the confessions she took back, how do you explain that she was found in room 201 of Hotel Palais, the very room where police were informed to find the culprit?"

"How did the police know that the culprit was supposed to be in room 201?" Artem asked.

"It's their job. Why the hell would that matter-"

"Order, order." The judge gaveled. "Mister Cunningham, language. And Mister Wing, please answer the question."

"It does matter, Your Honor. Very much, in fact. The police never tried to verify or find out the information about my client's past or activities while they had her in custody. Not a single thing. Everyone believed her false confession and ran with it. But they somehow did know the precise information about the culprit being in room 201."