How does the family lawyer respond to Zhang's question about immigration?

On August 30th, it was reported that YINGYING ZHANG, a visiting scholar from China to the United States, had been missing for nearly 80 days, and his whereabouts are still unknown. This case has always touched the hearts of many people.

Last night (29th) Beijing time, YINGYING ZHANG's family sent an open letter to Voice of China. In the open letter, YINGYING ZHANG's family informed them of their recent situation, future plans, donation arrangements and other related information. The open letter also collected eleven questions that family members have learned so far and answered them.

Earlier, some people questioned that YINGYING ZHANG's family members had an immigration tendency, because they hired two lawyers with experience in handling immigration business. In this regard, YINGYING ZHANG's family responded as "nonsense" in an open letter, and said: From beginning to end, the family never asked them any questions irrelevant to this case, including immigration.

Last night, Wang Zhidong, the lawyer representing YINGYING ZHANG's family, stressed in an exclusive interview with Voice of China that these doubts were totally unfounded. "Their main purpose in the United States now is to find Yingying as soon as possible and take her home. At the same time, they always pay attention to the arrangement and development of the case by the police and the prosecution. "

Wang Zhidong said that all five members of YINGYING ZHANG's family entered the United States on tourist visas. This visa allows a stay of six months and can be extended under special circumstances. Family members can also go back to participate in the trial of suspects when necessary after leaving the United States. He revealed, "As far as I know, Yingying's aunt returned to China on the 27th, and whether the rest of her family will return to China one after another is also explained in the open letter. What I want to say is that the Zhang family did not ask me how to immigrate or stay in the United States at any time, on any occasion or in any form. "

In an open letter, YINGYING ZHANG's family responded to the disclosure and specific use of fundraising information to the public. At present, the most important purpose of donation is to find the whereabouts of YINGYING ZHANG, and all purposes will be focused on this. At the same time, raising the fund-raising target amount to 500,000 yuan is to enable family members to continue searching for YINGYING ZHANG after the FBI stops working.

At 2: 45pm local time on 28th (3: 45am Beijing time on 29th), the kidnapping case of YINGYING ZHANG suspect Christensen was reopened. The main purpose of this hearing is to arrange the next date.

Judge Bruce first listened to the opinions of the lawyers of the prosecution and the defense on the motion submitted by the defense lawyer to the federal court to postpone the trial. It is understood that this motion was submitted by the team of defense lawyers of the suspect Christensen to the federal court on August 23, local time, requesting an extension of the pre-trial hearing and trial time of the case.

In court, the federal prosecutor for the Central District of Illinois told Judge Bruce that more time was needed to prepare for YINGYING ZHANG's kidnapping because of the huge amount of evidence. In addition, the federal district attorney said that they are likely to add new charges to the suspect in the future, so they agreed to the defense lawyer's motion to postpone the trial.

Finally, Judge Bruce approved the motion, and set the trial time of the case as 20127 February, and the pre-trial hearing time as 20127 February,127 February. In the meantime, the suspect Christensen will continue to be detained.

Stephen Beckett, a well-known local criminal lawyer, said in an interview with the media that it is very common for federal judges to postpone the trial time in the judicial process in the United States, because both the prosecution and the defense need to do a lot of preparatory work before the formal trial of the case begins.

Beckett said, "If you are given 5,000 pages to read, it will take time. Lawyers on both sides need time to judge whether the question is right or wrong, and also need time to judge what evidence to present to the court. In addition, lawyers need time to understand the interpretation of experts. If you are a defense lawyer, you need to invite experts to examine the evidence again to decide whether to agree with the decision made by the federal prosecutor. These tasks take time. "

In addition, if the suspect is accused of committing a serious crime, the procuratorate may impose the death penalty on him.

Beckett believes that the death penalty may appear in the future, mainly depending on whether the additional charges are heavier. Criminal suspects may face very severe punishment, including the death penalty.

Wang Zhidong, the lawyer of YINGYING ZHANG's family, also told Voice of China last night that the prosecution may increase the charges. "On the question of additional prosecution, as far as I know, it's not whether there will be additional prosecution. My judgment is that there will be additional charges. It's just time, fees and so on. We'll know the details later. At present, the suspect is charged with kidnapping. If additional charges are made, my judgment is that additional kidnapping is the most likely to cause death. Of course, it does not rule out that there is more evidence to prosecute for murder. If you are accused of kidnapping to death, you can seek the death penalty of US federal law. "

At present, the judge has approved the postponement of the YINGYING ZHANG case. If YINGYING ZHANG's whereabouts are still unknown when the trial starts again, will it affect the trial of this case?

In this regard, lawyer Wang Zhidong believes that in the United States, there is such a precedent for the prosecution of kidnapping for death or murder, and it is not necessary to find the body to prosecute kidnapping for death or murder. In this process, if YINGYING ZHANG is found, there is no doubt that more evidence can help the prosecution to make the case more conclusive, but this is not a necessary condition.

What an ugly thing to say!