Reply To: Dismay – Japanese Injustice Travesty and Tefillos

m in Israel:

In no decent system of laws would failure to be suspicious get someone 6 years in jail (and 13 was asked for by prosecutor)- that is what they are charged for. If I think I am doing something legal and I was fooled, my mistake should not land me in jail for 6 years. How can you call this system of “justice” fair? Whether they are being singled out or not, it is still terribly unfair. By your arguement if everyone got jail for jaywalking, it should be fair since they were all treated alike. And let’s not give the judge any credit for leniency; if you go to http://www.japanpidyon.org, you will find that it states “The defence attorneys were dismayed at the callous nature of the judge’s dismissal of the defence arguments”, with many examples backing up this charge. The judge failed to examine many of the exculptaory evidence items and made up a ridiculous charge that the Bochurim’s failure to realize something amiss could have cost many lives, thus justifying 6 years in prison for negligence! Yes – it is a tremendous waste of Hashem gift of breath to laud or defend the Japanese while you should be using that very same time to beg for Rachamei Shomayim on the Bochurim’s behalf. Hayetachen that you should defend the Japanese?