Blackman trial to start in Japan - Thursday(27Nov2003)

[Steve Bildermann]

A businessman accused of kidnapping, raping and killing a British woman in Japan begins his trial on Thursday.

Japanese property developer Joji Obara denies any involvement in the death of Lucie Blackman, 21, from Kent

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/3242136.stm

After his daughter's death, Mr Blackman refused to believe suggestions she might have run away to escape credit card debts, or she may have joined a religious cult.

He and his other daughter Sophie launched a nationwide appeal to the Japanese public and even established an office in Tokyo and a confidential hotline, staffed by ex-pats.

On June 24 last year, Obara was entertained by Blackman at a posh bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district and solicited her to go to his condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, prosecutors said.

He took Blackman to the holiday condo a week later, where he raped her after drugging her unconscious. Blackman later died of a chloroform overdose.

On July 4, Obara purchased a chainsaw, a shovel and a bag of cement in Tokyo. He then dismembered Blackman and buried her body in a beach cave in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, the indictment read. Her severed head was encased in concrete.

[Big Booger]

You know I saw a J-drama a couple years back about 3 women who cut up one of the 3 women's husbands after she had killed him. They put the pieces in the garbage but it was really disgusting. I couldn't believe that a drama could display such a thing... for kids to even watch.

I wonder if these people are ever influenced by that kind of crap.

I wonder if he will be found guilty or not.. Guess time will tell... but to use a chainsaw to cut the body up and then bury the parts in concrete is just disgusting...

[Taro Toporific]

Blackman trial to start in Japan - - BBC

BBC
Mr Blackman, who comes from the Isle of Wight, said: "The process is very meticulous, very thorough and very careful, which is why it's taken such a long time - they fully expect to have a positive result out of the trial."

I've heard that hearings at big criminal trials in Japan last less than one hour and only a few times a month. The Blackman trial may take years and years as described in the following.

Japan to Speed Up Murder Trials of Cult Guru
10:54 a.m. EST (1554 GMT) December 2, 1997 The Tokyo court holds four hearings each month on Asahara's trial...
...Japanese judges frequently take years to reach verdicts and for decades lawyers have criticised the painstakingly slow judicial system.
One recent example was the trial of former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka, who was arrested in the Lockheed scandal in 1976.


The Japan Times: Nov. 9, [b]2003
...in Tokyo, the sluggish, stop-and-go trial of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, focusing on a crime committed in 1995, finally ended Oct. 31, seven and a half years after it began. To be accurate, the period of deliberations ended; the trial will not really be over until the Tokyo District Court hands down its ruling in late February.....rather like watching a government bureaucracy at work for seven and a half years.
...Asahara's trial has probably reinforced the impression that Japanese courts are pointlessly slow-moving, somehow secretive, rigidly scripted and a bit of a farce, reaching largely predetermined outcomes

[Nagged]

Here's a true story of a woman cutting up her husband a few years ago overseas...

Despite the facts about what she did, and how poor Ms. Blackman met her end, their stories are soon forgotten...

Not so for others...I feel sorry for this kid getting killed in the prime of his life, but it was an accident. The Japanese media can be so prejudiced.

[Taro Toporific]