Xiao Hui (Photo of the Daily Telegraph)
Shoddy criminals such as Australian paedophiles and black-market guns suppliers are using a landmark court decision to obtain a commutation of their sentences. Victim rights advocacy groups are furious.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Australian Federal Attorney General Porter (Christian Porter) is calling for a review of the decision in a new state criminal appeal against court (NSW Court of Criminal Appeal), which allows a felony to plead guilty and commute his sentence. Even if they didn't do it out of confession.
This worrying legal loophole began in February this year. At the time, Steven Xiao, one of the worst insider trading prisoners in Australia, argued that Steven pleaded guilty to save the court's trial costs and was eligible for a reduction in sentence, so he succeeded in getting a one-year commutation.
The verdict was subsequently included in the new state's sentencing statement. Before that, suspects involved in federal charges, including the smuggling of children porn, terrorism and drug, could be commuted only by showing "repentance" or "willingness to promote justice". Xiao Hui's verdict made some of the suspects who had pleaded guilty because police evidence was conclusive and also successfully commuted their sentences.
It is reported that up to now, 13 criminal suspects' defence lawyers have cited the results of the Xiao Hui case to fight for his agent's commutation of sentence. These include paedophile Peters (Troy John Peters), who was indicted for withholding 676 freak pictures and videos of children tied to rape, who pleaded guilty and received a 25% sentence reduction.
In another case, drug smuggler Liu Wei (Wei Liu, who smuggled 20 kilograms of methamphetamine, managed to cut his non-bail sentence from nine years and five months to eight years and six months.
There was also the shooting of Zheng Shuji, a Chinese-American accountant at the Sydney Police Department in 2015, and Alamdi (Talal Alameddine), who supplied guns, also profited from the Xiao Hui ruling.
Victim rights advocacy groups resented the trial's results, saying it was an example of defending lawer playing with law. Porter said he was keeping a close eye on developments.