Yaakov Yosef Greenwald, the second of three Hassidic yeshiva students imprisoned in Japan after been tricked into carrying drugs has been sentenced: Six years in prison.
The Japanese prosecution had requested a 13-year prison sentence, including forced labor, and the judges went almost half-way. All three youths were arrested nearly two years ago; click here for the full story.
Present at the sentencing were one of the boys' lawyers, Mordechai Tzivin of Israel, as well as European Rabbis Council Director Rabbi Abba Dunner, and Aharon Nizri of London, Elimelech Bindiger of Antwerp, and Yaakov Yehuda of Bnei Brak.
Atty. Tzivin informed Israel National News that contrary to expectations, the court was relatively lenient, determining that though the defendant did not know he was carrying drugs, he should have been more cautious.
Greenwald was arrested together with Yosef Bondo and Yoel Zev [ben Mirel Risa Chava] Goldstein. The first was sentenced today (Wednesday), and the second – a minor at the time of his arrest – already has been sentenced to five years in prison and has been transferred to Israel; he is scheduled to be released in approximately a year and a half.
It is hoped and assumed that Greenwald will also be transferred to Israel shortly, although it is possible that the Japanese prosecution might appeal the sentence. Once in Israel, given that he has already been in jail for nearly two years and that he is likely to be paroled, he is scheduled to released in just over two years from now.
The trial of the third youth, Yoel Zev Goldstein, is scheduled to start two months from now.
The three, all under 20 years old at the time, were arrested in April 2008 for having smuggled drugs into Japan – inside a suitcase of antiques that a “friend” asked them to take for him. The latter, who paid them $1,000 each and assured them that everything was legal, has since been indicted in Israel.
They received the “antiques” in Amsterdam, concealed inside false-bottomed suitcases. Told that this was a precaution against theft, they continued to suspect nothing and flew on to Tokyo. In Japan, the false bottoms were quickly detected and broken into by customs officials – who found there $3.6 million worth of Ecstasy pills.
Their incarceration in Japan was and is very difficult, given Japan’s very strict approach to drug-trafficking and other crimes, and their own sheltered background. They were separated from each other in jail, grilled by interrogators, and forced to subsist on vegetables, fish and similar foods in order not to eat non-kosher food.
All three youths passed lie-detector tests showing that they were unwittingly taken advantage of by someone they trusted, and that they did not know what they were carrying. In addition, their behavior before and during their trip to Japan indicated that they felt not at all self-conscious or secretive about their intentions.