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COURT MUST INFORM APPLI-CABLE LAW BEFORE JUDGE-MENT
When public prosecutors prosecute a person of a criminal offence, they must state the facts of the offence, the evidence, and the specific legal provision violated. If the court convicts the ac-cused of an offence, it may, in accordance with the facts of the offence, change the applicable legal provision from that cited by the public prosecutor. The above is provided by Articles 264 and 300 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Before the court examines the accused, it must first inform him of the allegations against him, and of all the offences of which he is accused. If the court subsequently believes it necessary to alter the alleged offences, the accused must be further informed of such changes, as required by Article 95 Paragraph 1 of the Code.
In a 2001 criminal appeals judgment in a copy-right infringement case, the Supreme Court stated that the public prosecutor had filed the original prosecution under Article 91 Paragraph 1 of the Copyright Law, but the trial court instead convicted the accused of an offence under Para-graph 2 of the same article. However, according to the record of the trial, the accused was only informed of the offence under which the prose-cution was filed, but not of the change of offence. Thus the accused was hindered in the exercise of his right of defense, and the proceedings were in breach of the law. Therefore the Supreme Court annulled the trial judgment.