DIPLOMATIC EFFECTS / CH. 13:LEGAL PROCESS
NEWS REPORT, MONACO NEWS, SATURDAY 26TH JANUARY.
Seven walk free before trial for sedition
Following the intervention from his Majesty King Hervé and his advisers, the princess of Basse-Monaco has granted a pardon for seven of the ten expected to stand trial for sedition on Monday. Her spokeswoman, Arianne, marquise of upper Basse-Monaco, stated this morning:
'Her highness listened to statements from the prisoners concerning who commissioned the lawyer, and degrees of involvement of each concerned in planning the insulting and seditious line of reasoning in Friday's court case. She released one prisoner last night on the basis that there was clearly no case to answer. She has also taken into account the requests of his majesty and foreign governments and also the apologies from six of the prisoners for their part in commissioning the lawyer, and after considering her response over-night pardoned them this morning with a warning to show proper respect in the future. The Swiss prisoners showed little remorse for their part and did not exercise their right to consular support. Furthermore, when contacted personally by her royal highness, the Swiss authorities requested that no exception to our legal process be granted, so that their own investigation could continue.'
The full nature of those investigations has not yet been made clear, but their vehicles, (still clocking up illegal parking fines) are being investigated by anti-narcotics experts. Passing observers said it looked like hidden compartments have been located in the luxury vehicles' fuel tanks and interiors, and that the investigators had been heard to discuss traces of illegal substances. The beach café is enjoying the extra trade from interested by-standers as well as the investigating team, and in line with a recently granted license has started to serve full meals.
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NEWS REPORT, MONACO NEWS, MONDAY 27TH JANUARY.
Guilty as charged: Sedition
In an unusual case this morning, Monaco's most senior high court judge took the witness stand about events that had occurred in the same courtroom. There had been some speculation about whether the judge would also be trying the case, but given the severity of the charges the Lord Chief Justice was asked to come out of retirement to hear the case, and the case was held in front of a jury of twelve judges.
Having heard the evidence, the jury took five minutes to reach a unanimous verdict that the (French) lawyer's submission to court on Friday was indeed seditious, and that the (Swiss) plaintiffs had knowingly commissioned that seditious act, and indeed had been the main instigators of the action.
The argument that they had not acted alone was dismissed on the basis that the others had received a royal pardon, holding them innocent of any act they may or may not have committed. Quite what made them think they could escape a parking fine by claiming the princess of Basse-Monaco had no authority over her land is not clear, but blood-tests show they had been consuming the drug known as 'Casino kick', known to speed thought but also give the taker a clear sense of their own importance and unquestioning confidence in their decision-making.
This was held up in court as a mitigating factor, but as there was no evidence at all that the drugs had been forced upon the men, or taken unaware of the side effects, the plea was ruled inadmissible.
This is the first successful prosecution of sedition in two hundred years, and the law allows possible sentences of the excision of the guilty party's tongue and public flogging, or confiscation of all property and permanent reduction to serfdom.
Sentencing will occur on Wednesday.
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NEWS REPORT, MONACO NEWS, WEDNESDAY 30TH JANUARY.
Cost of sedition: a fine and three months' penal servitude
Following yesterday's amendment of the law, pressed for by HRH princess Claire du Basse-Monaco, and supported by international human rights organizations and other governments, reducing the maximum penalty for sedition to a fine and a year's penal servitude, the three prisoners were probably not surprised that they do not face flogging or confiscation of all their wealth and slavery, even though technically they were tried under the old law.
The princess did indeed make representations to the court about the sentencing, suggesting that although denying her right to rule and even the legal existence of Basse-Monaco was indeed a grave crime, it was by no means the most serious case of sedition imaginable.
Asked if the princess would be inconvenienced by the challenge of finding something menial for three prisoners to do in her fiefdom, or if greater Monaco would benefit from their labour, the princess stated that she was planning some building work between now and the summer, and while she would not trust the prisoners with important work or valuable tools, there was probably manual work on a building site that they could do. She further specified, that, having talked to the builder, one month's labour would be sufficient.
The prisoners were sentenced to a four month sentence in custody that would include two months' penal servitude in greater Monaco, and one month's in Basse-Monaco. In keeping with the normal procedure in Monaco, the prisoners were also required to pay a fine that would meet the costs of their food and accommodation. Upgraded accommodation, e.g. a single room, was offered and declined.
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ANALYSIS DEPARTMENT, SECURITY, RESTORED KINGDOM, 9AM THURSDAY 31ST JAN 2278
“Hi Eliza,” Karen said, “We very probably have a result on that little question you posed. In general, someone has been very careful. Family background search has turned up nothing which gets us more than princesses Svetlana and Claire are grand-daughters by maternal descent of the previous princess of Basse-Monaco, who died a couple of years ago.
“But. I hope we're not going to be overheard.”
“We'd better not, given the secrets that get analysed here,” Eliza said.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Prince Rudolph's friends were not as careful. One posted a picture labeled 'Rudolph's new interest in life, princess Svetlana, relaxed,” Karen said. “A few days later the tag got changed to 'foreign princess catches prince's eye' and the next day it got deleted. We've only got the comment on that, not the actual picture. But twelve days ago, Svetlana flew to Berne, Rudolph got a message from Svetlana of Russia saying she was coming to visit and hoped he'd take her to the Christian Union. There, he was then seen in the company of princess Claire. Previous poster wrote 'Good to see Rudolph and Princess Claire reunited at C.U. How did he think he'd cope without seeing her for eight whole months?'. So it's not conclusive, but...”
“It looks pretty likely, unless Svetlana's handed her boyfriend over to her cousin.”
“And I know it takes all the fun out of guessing,” George said, looking up from his computer, “but when I checked there was only one princess in St Petersburg who'd been to Berne recently, and she was in the same patch of building as the princess Svetlana and princess Claire.”
“Spoilsport,” Karen accused her husband.
“But interestingly, she's currently talking to a truthsayer, if you want me to warn her about the information leak.”
“On behalf of their majesty's security services, you mean?”
“Yes. Alternatively we've got a contact in Berne who could talk to the student who put it up in the first place, and teach her how to delete comments better. But I expect Russian secret services can do a better job of getting back-ups scrubbed.”
“How about getting a message directly to someone in their secret services?” Eliza suggested.
“How?”
“Commander Sue Reynolds, our recently-married ambassador to Atlantis, talking to the recently-married wife of the Russian Ambassador, a Colonel in the Imperial Secret Service.”
“Fine by me,” George said, “Should Karen contact her or Mystery?”
“I'll do it,” Karen said, “I've talked to her before.”
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ATLANTIS, 10AM THURSDAY 31ST JAN 2278
“Yelena, thanks for coming,” Sue said.
“Mysterious messages usually mean something fun,” Yelena said.
“I'm not sure what counts as fun, but anyway, our security services have spotted an information leak you might want to plug. Someone knows how to delete pictures but didn't think of comment history.” Sue handed her her the notes Karen had dictated.
“How many people know this?”
“Someone with the gift contacted me directly.”
“Oh yes? Your mysterious voice?”
“I'll pretend I didn't hear that. It was someone who works in our security services. They came across that, and presumed you didn't want it to be there.”
“I expect we don't.”
“They also said, and I quote, 'We don't know of any reporters with a quantum decoder, so solve this and hopefully all will be well for her to enjoy her education.'”
“Sue, you're not supposed to admit to pointing a quantum decoder at royalty,” Yelena said.
“I didn't know I had. I'm sure I wouldn't do something like that.”
“That's all right then,” Yelena said.
“I was also told that they chose to send the message to you via me, rather than the princess via the truthsayer in St Petersburg, because they thought the truthsayer would prefer to stay ignorant, and they weren't sure how much the princess herself knew who to talk to in order to do a proper job.”
“And you think I do?”
“I presume that you're perfectly capable of handling it yourself, or failing anything else, you can at least make sure anyone who looks at it ends up with a sudden melt-down of their electronic device.”
“What a thing to suggest!” Yelena said, grinning.
“I know, I'm terrible, aren't I? Want a cup of tea, coffee or cucumber?”
“Do you actually make that yourself?”
“Whenever I do, I remember my brother's amazement about how many were living around here, 'It's almost like someone's encouraging them to grow here.' he said.”
“When was that?”
“A few hours after Atlantis started moving. It's very rich in vitamins, you know.”
“I'm sure. Thanks, but I think I'll go and get to work.”
“Have fun. Not too much of course.”
“I'll be very discrete and restrained, I assure you. Bye.”
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ATLANTIS 11AM
After correcting the historic caption to read Claire instead of Svetlana, Yelena sent a message: “Yuri, I've cleared up the worst of the mess, but there's probably a stain. Can you get someone to go there with a scrubbing brush? The mess-maker tried to clean up after themselves, just didn't know how to properly.' where the link there included a slightly incorrect spelling of the address. Job done, she went to tell Mikhail the other things Sue had passed on.
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RESTORED KINGDOM
[Hi cousins,] Sarah called to princess Eliza, and Karen [I just thought you'd like to know that Russia now has a fully functioning chartered association.]
[I thought the charter had become active a few days ago?] Karen asked.
[Yes, but I said functioning. They've just been involved in their first anti-corruption case. It was tried under the auspices of Nadiya, grand duchess of Kaliningrad, who's been known to borrow the hairbush of Svetlana the duchess of Moscow, also known as Princess Claire of Basse-Monaco, and — don't tell anyone — crown princess Svetlana of Russia.]
[Svetlana of Moscow doesn't sound like much of an alias,] Karen said.
[I know, that's why she's taken to being Claire of Basse-Monaco even in St Petersburg, now that she's started getting famous for getting lawyers and drug smugglers imprisoned for sedition. That really ruined a photo-artist's day, according to what princess Claire told Sofia.]
[Sofia?] Eliza asked.
[Membership secretary of the Imperial Truthsayers Association.]
[Go on, why did it ruin the photo-artist's day?]
[For the previous eight months, she'd been doing a fly-on-the-wall piece on the lives of a couple of Swiss people she'd first met at a party. The title was going to be the Teflon men, because although there were rumours, and even court cases, nothing stuck. Until their cars got clamped and they discovered that Basse-Monaco has laws protecting people from insult and intrusive photographers, but nothing at all about respect for privacy of impounded property. Claire heard that the Swiss authorities were interested in the guys and invited their forensics department to go and take apart their cars. So, the photographer's got to find a new title for her work. Plus, in the interests of artistic integrity, she thinks really she needs to continue it another three months to document their lifestyle in penal servitude. And, of course, she's got a massive parking fine to pay too.]
[How much of this is public knowledge?]
[Hmm, well, I was in on the conversation when Claire was telling Sofia all this — at Claire's request — that is one very trusting young woman, by the way; she's practicing not making decisions, and asked Sofia to ask someone with the gift to see what someone actually listening in would get.]
[OK. So let's call it all private, but if we need to contact her, we can go through Sofia?]
[I'd say so, yes. Except that Sofia doesn't think Claire is the crown princess, so going through cousin Nadiya is probably a better option.]
[Sofia's considered it and doesn't think so, you mean?] Karen asked.
[Exactly. She's met Claire, at home and informal as well as outside and formal when she adopts a slight French accent and dresses in French style. She's also met the crown princess formally a few times, and doesn't see how it can possibly be the same person. She's convinced Her Imperial Highness is taller.]
[Interesting! You were asked to check that too?]
[Svetlana asked me to, yes, and report anything of concern to Nadiya. When she's being Svetlana she thinks in pure Russian, and when she's acting Claire she thinks at least partly in French, by the way. She's a good actress, no question about it, and she's got good mental control. She didn't say, but I'd guess she's been practicing with Nadiya.]