SAITAMA (Kyodo) The Saitama District Court has asked the media not to report some of the remarks made by lay judges at post-trial press conferences because they could breach confidentiality obligations.
The request, made Monday, was spurred by responses two male lay judges made to reporters when asked about the trial of a 53-year-old man they sentenced to nine years in prison for arson.
Reporters asked the two — a 29-year-old man and a man in his 30s — if the big difference between the demands of the prosecution and the defense team made sentencing difficult, and if they thought they should have watched a DVD of a police experiment that re-created the fire scene. The DVD was adopted as evidence.
The court said stating personal views on sentencing constitutes a violation of the confidentiality guidelines, and giving views on the adoption of evidence also violates the secrecy of court deliberations.
According to the court, Ryuji Tamagami, 53, drove a truck into a pachinko parlor in Niiza, Saitama Prefecture, and ignited it with a fire bomb on April 24.
The prosecutors sought 10 years for Tamagami, while the defense asked for four years.
Six lay judges took part in deciding the sentence together with professional judges.
Under the lay judge system that was introduced in May, lay judges can be imprisoned or fined if they intentionally leak confidential information they gain during trials.