Lawyers express unhappiness and surprise

Exiting from the court building yesterday evening, the lawyers representing Sulu Sou and Scott Chiang, Jorge Menezes and Pedro Leal respectively, expressed unhappiness and surprise at the sentence given to the defendants.

Questioned on the outcome, Leal said, “I was not expecting this, in a negative sense. I was expecting for an acquittal [of the accused],” followed by Menezes who expressed “unhappiness” over the result.

To the Times Menezes added, “I was expecting a not-guilty verdict, and I am disappointed with the ruling: because of its possible impact on the defendants and its possible impact on Macau’s civil liberties and rule of law,” he said. “I will not comment on the content of the case.”

The lawyers also said they will study with their clients the possibility of appealing the sentence; a possibility that “is not yet decided.”

As the lawyers mentioned, “We have to see in detail the ruling,” noting that the one given yesterday by the court was written in Chinese language only.

The lawyers also noted that at moment there are several possible scenarios, including the fact that the “Public Prosecutor might not [want to] appeal the sentence.”

Information confirmed to the journalists present by both defendants confirmed that they “haven’t yet decided if we will or not appeal [the sentence],” adding, “we will still to discuss this with the lawyer team.” Sou added that they need to “analyze first the document [ruling] from the court.”

Questioned on the sentence from the court Sou said, “from the beginning we always said – and we continue to think – we are not guilty, we were just exercising a fundamental right.”

Scott Chiang said he “had no expectations” concerning the outcome of the process. “We were just seeing what happened and we all know this [decision] might not be final,” adding, “this is a not [just] a battle; it is a lifelong struggle.”

Questioned on the possibility of an upcoming sentence on other cases that would aggravate their situation, Chiang said, “we know we are [always] more or less on the verge at all times [of facing a jail term]. This was just a realization that such risks could become real.”

Taking the same Chinese proverb previously mentioned by top-lawyer Neto Valente, Chiang said, “We believe that we are the chicken killed to scare the monkey.”

“We could not care less about what happens to the chicken; what we care is that the monkey is not afraid.” RM