tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post9183737879578997718..comments2023-10-09T00:45:55.603+09:00Comments on Shisaku: Extended And Revised Thoughts On The Decision To Retry Ozawa IchiroMTChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04626942240117432624noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-20686304959251699762012-05-12T14:27:11.339+09:002012-05-12T14:27:11.339+09:00Anonymous makes a fair point. I think actually one...Anonymous makes a fair point. I think actually one of the disappointing things with this whole affair is that the public has been unable to discern between not liking someone's political style and approach and legal culpability. To be sure the Japanese wouldn't be the only people in the world to be this way but still concerning as during a time of political instability these are the institutional features you really want people to strongly defend (also see: rulings on constitutionality)sigmal1http://www.sigma1.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-44492981161999758652012-05-12T08:42:14.057+09:002012-05-12T08:42:14.057+09:00The acquittal of Ozawa, and the deliberately misle...The acquittal of Ozawa, and the deliberately misleading way the Japanese media covered it, has me wondering if even the view (hinted at in Sigma1's comment above and that until recently I shared) that Ozawa _must_ be dirty (no one could point exactly to what his crime was but we all just "knew") was ever justified. If Ozawa has been up to the sort of wrongdoing we all thought we "knew" about, how come even politically motivated Stalinist prosecutors can't find any evidence of it, even after going through every written and spoken word, every thing and everybody in his life. They've done everything to this man that can be done to a man and yet there's still no actual evidence of wrongdoing. If someone has evidence of an actual crime, even if it's not up to legal standards, let's have it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-86854637345728991262012-05-10T11:27:12.031+09:002012-05-10T11:27:12.031+09:00Thanks for this, Michael. Although I think that te...Thanks for this, Michael. Although I think that technically an appeal is not the same as a retrial. In the former, which is common, one side lodges an objection to alleged faults in the verdict of a lower court. In the latter, which is allowed only in rare cases, the whole case is presented again by both sides from scratch because of some major flaw in the original trial.Richard Lloyd Parryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17804796288758784905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714063.post-20554047792693982532012-05-10T10:11:24.056+09:002012-05-10T10:11:24.056+09:00I approve of these comments. It is a thing of abso...I approve of these comments. It is a thing of absolute beauty and great frustration that the media has managed to get people to accept that the greater crime against democracy and the rule of law was Ozawa managing to get away with what he probably has, rather than the politicization of what should be an important democratic institution.sigma1http://www.sigma1.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com