If standard practices are applied, the three UCLA basketball players – including LiAngelo Ball – arrested Tuesday in mainland China
under suspicion of shoplifting face between three and 10 years in
prison if convicted, according to Chinese lawyers who briefed Yahoo
Sports on the applicable laws. The sentencing guidelines could shift
depending on the amount that the Chinese could prove was allegedly
stolen.
Authorities
believe the players shoplifted from a Louis Vuitton store near the UCLA
team hotel outside of Shanghai. The Bruins are in China to play Georgia
Tech on Saturday in the season opener. The players were arrested
Tuesday after local law enforcement came to the team hotel and
questioned both UCLA and Georgia Tech players before taking the three
away. ESPN first reported the arrests.
What
they face now bears little resemblance to the legal system of the
United States. The three men could be detained for more than a month
without American-style bail before local prosecutors even decide whether
to press charges, according to William Nee, a Hong Kong-based
researcher of the Chinese court system for Amnesty International.
Nee
said it is not uncommon for a defendant to wait 30-37 days before being
officially indicted. Among those indicted, Chinese prosecutors enjoy a
99.2 percent conviction rate, according to Nee’s research.
While it is unknown exactly what the players are being detained for, Chinese law calls for a fine and between three to 10 years in prison for anyone convicted of “robbing public or private property using force, coercion, or other methods.” The
case could also be dropped to the lower “administration violation”
rather than robbery, which would lessen any potential penalty including
prison time, according to Jeremy Daum, an attorney and research fellow
at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center based in Beijing.
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