Turn that Radio down… or go to Jail!

The Osaka High Court on Tuesday scrapped a lower court ruling that sentenced a woman to one year in prison for harassing a neighbor with loud music, and extended the sentence to 18 months, ruling that that earlier ruling was too light on her.Handed the 18-month sentence was Miyoko Kawahara, 59, a resident of Heguri, Nara Prefecture.

“The lower court ruling failed to grant that the suffering inflicted on the victim was intentional, and by evaluating it too lightly, the prison sentence given was too light,” Presiding Judge Hiroshi Furukawa said in handing down the ruling.

Both Kawahara and public prosecutors had filed appeals against the Nara District Court’s earlier ruling on the case. Kawahara’s lawyers claimed that the music she had played was intended as a protest and that the victim did not suffer. Public prosecutors argued that the district court ruling, which did not accept that the injuries to the victim were intentional, was a mistake, and said that a one-year prison sentence was too light.

Kawahara was convicted of playing loud music on a CD-cassette player day after day between November 2002 and April 2005 in an attempt to worsen a 65-year-old neighbor’s high blood pressure.

After handing down the ruling, the presiding judge addressed Kawahara, saying, “I want you to realize that no one accepts disturbing noise in a residential area. I want you to return to society as soon as possible, and live a peaceful life.”

(毎日イãÆ’³ã‚¿ãÆ’©ã‚¯ãÆ’†ã‚£ãÆ’–)

By Sun Tzu on 27-12-2006