A Trial in the Making

[DaveIronside]

OOC - A joint Ironside post

1st November 2018

Field Marshall Sokolov may be on the run from the Lodjain authorities but he was still a man with a use. In the twenty years he'd been involved with the High Command of the Lodjain military he had hidden away caches of cash, weapons, equipment and most importantly friends across Mundus. Now on the run he needed whatever support he could find and having a large offering of military equipment and cold hard cash made that rather easy to come by. Academica City was a place where fro enough money it was possible to stay hidden at least for a short time and he could also put his plan of revenge into action.

"Field Marshall" the smartly dressed gentleman stood as he approached the dining room table in the hotel restaurant.

"Mr.Rae" Sokolov addressed one of the Borlanders leading organisers. "I took the liberty of ordering you a drink, I hope you do like mojito" the pair sat down and Sokolov handed over the folder. It would have everything Rae needed to pull off an operation that would once more shock the world while at the same time inflating the groups bank balance, fighting an insurgency against the Morelanders wasn't cheap. Will Rae checked the folder, everything seemed in order as they'd been promised and most importantly there was the details of the bank account which Sokolov had made payment into. Will took out his mobile phone and used the restaurant wifi to check that the bank account had been stocked with the money they'd agreed, he did some transfers to begin the process of moving the funds around the world into numerous other places all controlled by the Borlanders.

"And she's definitely on that flight?" Will asked once more checking the documents.

"Indeed she is" Sokolov confirmed. The pair finished their meals, shook hands and headed their seperate ways, Sokolov with a sense of excitement for what the future news would bring while Rae had work to do.


5th November 2018

It hadn't taken long to put a plan together, with Sokolov's contacts still in the Lodjain Armed Forces and his stash of money the first stage of the plan was simple enough.  "Good Morning Minister Utkin" an Air Force Loadmaster greeted her as she entered the aircraft along with three of her advisers. Anna Utkin was scheduled to head from the Isle of Queens and head for 90 minutes to Kerak the smallest of the Lodjain islands. The crew onboard had each been paid generously, enough to keep several generations of their family comfortable or even set them in up luxury in many nations, one had already sent their family to Nya Aland and had them buy a nice apartment.  Fifteen minutes into the flight they gave some garbled radio messages to the Air Traffic Controllers and then turned off the transponder dropping dangerously over the waters.

"What's happening?" Anna asked the Loadmaster.

"Nothing to be concerned about" the Loadie lied as Anna looked out the window. Five minutes later she was still concerned, it seemed like any moment a freak wave could almost slap the underside of the aircraft.

"We're a little low aren't we." Without a word the Loadie removed their pistol and shot the three advisers, Anna froze in a mixture of shock and fear as the blood splattered across the paperwork she was reading. "Please....please no" She begged imagining at any moment the bullet ripping through her skull, it never came.

"You Minister are coming for a little ride, you have no place on the Conclave. Acting all high and mighty, Lady Utkin, Minister of Social Affairs. You're a dirty pleb just like us. Jumped up piece of scum from the streets, a drug addict, probably a hooker or something too at some point. We're doing a Lodja a favour." and with that he slammed the pistol into the side of her head knocking her out.


6th November 2018

Anna felt someone touching her face and winced with pain. "Hey, its ok Anna, I'm just looking at this cut." She began slowly waking up and found herself on a bed in a small room, a man wearing a grey hoody and jeans was sat on the edge of her bed, a bowl of water and a first aid kit on his knee. He spoke Lodjain but with a heavy accent, "I'm Miles Brownlee, you're safe don't worry" she wondered if the vision of her friends being shot had been a dream and that she was in some kind of hospital. As her eyes focused that was not the case, the room looked more like some horrible bed sit and now she was fully awake she felt the cold iron shackle from her right ankle to the bed. She instinctively reached a hand towards it. "Sorry but needed to be done, you've enough slack on it to get to the toilet, the fridge and sink" he gestured around the room. He began wiping the dirt and dried blood off her face. "I'm sorry I can't tell you exactly where you are, or what you're doing here just yet but rest assured nothing bad is going to happen to you as long as you don't do anything silly and you do what we ask you ok." Anna nodded as she began to cry. "Now, now" Miles wiped the tears running down her cheek, "You're too pretty to cry" he said with a reassuring smile. "Now, I've got to go but there is a sandwich is the fridge, chicken salad, some cans of soda and some fruit." He stood and headed to the door knocking three times it opened. Anna could just make out two guys sat outside in the corridor either side of a small table each with an assault rifle on their backs.

"Please where am I?" She asked once more but Miles just headed out and shut the door behind him, the sound of three dead bolts and a key in the door leaving her alone.

The search for the missing Lodjain Plane carrying Social Affairs Minister Anna Utkin can be called off. Today the Kingdom of Borland can announce that she is safe and sound and in our care. She is however charged with aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation, namely the so called "Kingdom of East Moreland", in so far as she has co-operated with a range of measures put forward by the terrorist leader David Ironside to bring the Queendom of Lodja further inline with his corrupt ideology. On behalf of both the Borland and Lodjain people we intend to put this terrorist sympathiser on trial in a weeks time unless the matter is settled out of court.

We shall consider the matter to be settled when the following conditions are meet.

1. The Queendom of Lodja withdraw from the CNN

2. An out of court settlement of $20,000,000 is paid.

3. All members of the East Moreland "military" are removed from Lodja.

4. Lady Stasya is dismissed from Royal Service.

5. The Lodjain Embassy in Northfort is closed.

6. Queen Klara apologises for inviting a terrorist to her wedding and revokes the participation of David Ironside.

7. The Isle of Karak is placed under the Protectorship of the Kingdom of Borland for the next 100 years.

I need not remind the world that under Borland law terrorism carried the death penalty should all members of the jury agree to pass that as a sentence.

I would therefore ask the Queendom of Lodja to seriously consider the out of court settlement as to my untrained legal eyes this does seem an open and shut case of Lady Anna Utkin being guilty of terrorism. I do however believe that she may have been mislead about the true nature of the Morelanders thanks to the international community turning a blind eye to their terrorism and seemingly legitimising their claims to illegally occupy our homeland. I therefore would ask the judge in the case to take this into consideration should the matter come to court and grant her clemency.

May The Gods Watch Over You and The World Know Peace

King Kyle Barren
King of Borland and the Borland Folk
Prince of Nothern Borland
Baron Simcoe
Earl Grey

[DaveIronside]

TAYLOR-YOUNG BEGINS LODJAIN MINISTERS TRIAL

The trial of the Lodjain Minister of Social Affairs, Anna Utkin, began today at an undisclosed location but shown live online. The judge for the trial is Martin Taylor-Young, a 86 year old former lawyer who has worked his way through the Borlander justice system until appointed as a Chief Justice in 2017.  The first day of the trial began with the swearing in of the 12 person jury who may hold the balance of whether the Minister is given the death penalty for her crimes. At the point where Utkin was presented with the charges she refused to enter a plea despite the advice of her advocate, 37 year old lawyer Stephanie Clarke's advice on the contrary. Several times the trial had to be stopped as Utkin began crying and begging to be freed. She was granted several breaks by Taylor-Young in order to try and compose herself.

The trial is likely to start hearing evidence tomorrow morning.

[Libby]

A PUBLIC PLEA TO THE KINGDOM OF BORLAND

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As the true voice of the Lodjain people we wish to see the safe return of Minister Anna Utkin and while we may share support for some of your demands we are unable to provide you with satisfaction regarding them. We however are determined to do all we can to bring Lady Anna home to her people. As such we are willing to make the following offer to settle her court case with immediate effect.

1) A payment of $30,000,000

2) The transfer of a further $10,000,000 worth of stocks and shares to King Kyle Barren.

3) Support for a nation wide boycott of East Moreland goods.

We hope this is acceptable.

Signed

The Plebs.

[DaveIronside]

COURT ESTABLISHES THAT MORELANDERS ARE TERRORISTS

On the 2nd day of the trial of Lodjain Minister Lady Anna Utkin the prosecution have focused upon proving beyond reasonable doubt that the Morelanders are indeed terrorists.

The first example was the attack against Borlander military patrols in the Alps. A 27 year old member of the Borland military gave evidence that he had witnessed members of his unit captured by Morelander operatives and nailed to trees. "It was horrific, they captured a young rookie from my unit, he had only just passed basic training and we got hit by an ambush. He was captured and two more of my unit killed, as we bugged out he was seperated from us and I was sent back to find him. I arrived just in time to see two Red Legionnaires, the Morelander terrorist spearhead, nailing him to a tree with a long metal spike. His screams filled the air and will never leave me." The soldier who is now a Sergeant was then asked whether he would be able to identify any of the terrorists for future court cases. The Sergeant confirmed that he could and that he believed the man responsible is one of the terrorist ring leaders Alex Redfern, a man married to the "Princess of East Moreland" Freya Ironside. The defence attempted to cast doubts on the credibility of the evidence however it was easily beaten down by the prosecution.

The next example was the murder of the Prince of Borland by East Morelanders. In 2014 Prince Stephen, the first born child of King Kyle had been sent into hiding for his protection in Safraen. The child was placed in the care of two elderly citizens trusted by the King however tragically the pair we're discovered by East Moreland agents and poisoned. Safraen at the time was a puppet of East Moreland with their forces terrorising the countryside in two wars causing the deaths of tens of thousand if not millions of Safraen citizens. The Defence pointed out that two police investigations ruled their deaths were accidents having purchased bad sushi and eating contaminated honey. This investigation however was shown by the prosecution to be heavily bias as the Morelanders had several connections with Safraen law and order during their occupation of the nation. The judge said the international community should issue an arrest warrant for the "King of East Moreland" whom he believes would have instigated the murder.

Finally examples were shown of members of the various attacks on Zimalia by the "East Moreland Armed Forces" this saw a grand total of 118 people killed and was according to the judge a clear violation of the Uppsala Convention. The Defence attempted to say that this claim was not terrorism as it existed between two sovereign nations however the prosectution defeated this notion easily by asking the defence team to point out East Moreland in an academically approved atlas from the Borland School Syllabus, they were unable to do so and thus unable to prove the East Moreland Armed Forces represented a sovereign nation.

In the rest of the days proceedings a series of communications between Lady Anna and other members of Lodja's government, the Conclave, were shown. This showed payments being made to Red Legion by the Lodjain government clearly therefore an example of Lodja funding terrorism. Also the voting records of the Conclave were shown and in them on two occasions Lady Anna had the determining vote in matters relating to Red Legion activity in Lodja, on both occasions voting in their favour, something the prosecution believe shows a willing collaboration with terrorists.

A key legal expert said after the end of the days proceedings, "The court case today went very much in the favour of the prosecution, it doesn't look good for Lady Anna and she should strongly start to co-operate with the authorities, if I was her legal time I'd be advising her to plead guilty and contact her homeland and ask them to support her with the plea deal."

In other news it was reported that while the Plebs of Lodja had offered an alternative arrangement for the release of Lady Anna this was turned down. The King replied personally to the Plebs saying, "We appreciate you want the release of a woman who has done a great deal to support your cause. Keeping people as 2nd class citizens in evil and to have a noblewoman like Lady Anna take up your cause is vital. I however can't let sentiment stand in the way of justice. She has aided my people's enemies and as such any agreement to end prosecution and have some restorative justice must meet minimum expectations we laid out. Sadly therefore the trial must continue."

[DaveIronside]

UTKIN TRIAL COMES TO AN END OF HEARING EVIDENCE

The trial of Lady Anna Utkin, the Minister for Social Affairs from Lodja, has today seen an end of the prosecution presenting evidence. After three days of witnesses and evidence the case of the prosecution has finished meaning the defence could now present their own. The lawyer representing Lady Anna informed the judge that despite his urging she was still claiming that the court had no authority to judge her. Following around half an hour of attempts by the lawyer to argue his case to the judge he finally gave up which saw Lady Anna carry on berating the judge and jury. It was only after she was removed by the court security that the case could continue.

The judge overseeing the case, Justice Taylor-Young, ruled that as the court was sitting as the crown court and was given authority by King Kyle it had every right to put Lady Anna on trial for crimes relating to terrorism. He further announced that tomorrow morning he would begin hearing closing statements and the jury would be sent out. It is expected that potentially the verdict will be known within the next 24 hours.

Despite the trial reaching its climax the King has once more appealed to Lodja to help support their Minister by accepting a plea bargain, the conditions of which have been well discussed. King Kyle said, "I have a bad feeling about where this trial is heading for Lady Anna. We have seen she has the support of the average person from Lodja and surely the government their must help her. They need to cast off the chains that the so called East Moreland monarch has wrapped them up in and save one of their most dedicated MInisters who was sadly lead astray thanks to the actions of her beloved Queen. I urge Queen Klara to act before the court reach what I sadly think is an inevitable verdict."

[Libby]

Lt.Col Dmitriy Sobol had been given command of the Lodjain 1st Commando Regiment only a few months ago. His unit had spent much of that time training with a handful of Red Legionnaires and he was desperate for a chance to show people what they could do. It was therefore his lucky day when a member of the Lodjain Intelligenc Service told them they had some intelligence of where the signal had been coming from broadcasting the trial. Sobol was delighted, it was an old wool mill on the edge of the small city of Kirs on Grand Alucard. As soon as he'd been given the location he and his men had headed out to the island and prepared for their first operation. The sixteen men unit was excited, it was more like a team buzzing about a sports match rather than a military operation. "Shouldn't we wait for the Morelanders" a young Private asked his commander as they began to clamber into the vehciles that would lead to the wool mill. The plan was simple, effect entry on each floor and sweep the place room by room.

"The Morelanders won't be here for another 24 hours, we need to move now." Sobol explained. "Do not question my command, we're more than capable." he explained as he double checked his own sub machine gun. He felt confident that within a few moments they'd have Utkin freed and be national heroes. "Don't question my orders again." he added as the vehcile roared towards the target building. The driver skidded them to a halt and half the vehicle piled onto the roof and blew one of the windows, meanwhile Sobol and his team blew in the front door. There were screams from the room in front of them and as Sobol watched his men sweep inside he heard gunshots, he moved in himself rapidly moved to the next door tossed a flashbang and swung himself into the room. "ARMY! STAND STILL!" he yelled, a figure in the darkness came towards him staggering and Sobol dropped them with a burst of gunfire. For the next minute there were shouts, screams and gunshots. As the dusk cleared inside the building it was clear Utkin wasn't there. The mill had no courtroom, it did however had a bank of servers, computers and camera equipment. A pair of weeping teenagers sat handcuffed in one of the rooms, the Lodjains had just broke up Lodja Pleb Youth TV (LPY TV) a hobby of a group of nerds, broadcasting on the internet against laws on Plebs owning media businesses without Patrician oversight.

"Shit" Sobol surveyed the dead teenagers he'd helped slaughter.  This would not go well for them and now Sobol suspected he himself would be in serious trouble,

[DaveIronside]

UTKIN TO BE EXECUTED

Lodjain Social Affairs Minister Anna Utkin broke down in tears today in court as judge Martin Taylor-Young announced her death sentence following convictions for a range of offences including supporting terrorism and other connected offences. The jury took just 20 minutes to reach a guilty verdict and were unanimous in their decision meaning the judge could pass the death penalty. Speaking as he did he said, "It gives me no joy to sentence someone who has worked to support those less fortunate than herself in her own country. We however live in a global community and the charitable work done in one nation can not give someone the excuse for actions they have taken to deny another group their homeland, their basic human rights or in many cases taken their lives. I therefore am left with no choice other than to pass the harshest sentence possible."

There is a chance of an appeal however throughout the trial she refused to co-operate therefore it is hard to say on what grounds an appeal could be lodged successfully. Should the appeal either not be lodged or be thrown out then the sentence could be carried out by the weekend. It was confirmed after the trial that the sentence would be carried out using a firing squad. There has yet to be any comment from the Lodjain government following the legally recognised conviction.

[DaveIronside]

NOTIFICATION OF INTENT TO EXECUTE

Following the rejection of an appeal in the case of Lady Anna Utkin the judges presiding have determined that the sentence of death is appropriate and shall be carried out. Therefore the convicted individual will be taken to a place of execution on Sunday 9th December 2018 and executed by firing squad in the manner laid out by the nations justice system. The execution is to be carried out by five members of the Kingdom of Borland's Armed Forces, one of whom shall be randomly assigned a wax bullet. Upon execution Lady Anna's body shall be given a funeral in accordance with her Sessifetian faith and her ashes spread at sea.

[DaveIronside]

STATEMENT FROM HIS MAJESTY KING KYLE OF BORLAND AND THE BORLAND FOLK

Today I should have signed the death warrant of Lady Anna Utkin of Lodja however I have decieded that I shall use my powers as King to commute her sentence of death to one of life imprisonment. This is a decision I have not taken lightly however I feel that while the passing of the death penalty on Lady Anna was legally the correct thing to do I do not think it would morally be the right thing to do. Lady Anna is guilty of aiding the terrorists of East Moreland, that is clear however it is also clear the Lodjain people, including her have been fed a pack of lies about ourselves and the Moreland terrorist organisation. We therefore can not fully blamed Anna for her actions. What is clear however is that Lady Anna is morally a good person, she has used her position in Lodjain society to aid those less fortunate than herself and I believe that this speaks volumes about her character when not being corrupted by her puppet Queen.

Lady Anna shall remain in confinement for the rest of her natural life, rest assured she will not be mistreated but will instead become part of the Kingdom of Borland's prison community. Unlike the terrorist organisation of East Moreland who pass death sentences on pregnant women following kangeroo courts the Kingdom of Borland believes that once a legal sentence has been passed a moral one should also be considered, something the "King" of East Moreland would do well to learn from.

Signed

King Kyle Barren of Borland and the Borland Folk.