In Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, a 19-year-old Kurdish teenager from Turkey was sentenced to five years in prison for driving without a license, causing a deadly hit-and-run accident. This case unfolded in Saitama District Court on the 17th, where Judge Kenichi Emi declared the sentence, stating that the driving was reckless and had severe consequences.
The incident took place on September 23rd last year. The teenager, who was 18 at the time, was driving without a license and hit two people on a moped at an intersection around 11:35 PM. Without stopping, he fled the scene. The victims were a 17-year-old construction worker, who died early the next morning, and a 16-year-old high school student, who remains in a coma 10 months after the accident.
Court findings reveal that the teenager borrowed a car from relatives and was driving with two friends. As he approached the intersection, he accelerated to run a yellow light. By the time the light turned red, about 35.5 meters before the stop line, he was speeding at approximately 95 km/h, well over the 30 km/h speed limit, leading to the crash.
Although the victims also failed to stop at the red light, Judge Emi found that they could not have predicted a car approaching at such high speed, and the accident was largely due to the defendant’s reckless driving. After hitting the victims, the teenager did not slow down and asked a relative to take the blame, with no insurance or apology provided to the victims’ families.
The defendant, wearing a black polo shirt and pants, appeared gaunt and had a blue tattoo on his left arm. He listened to the judgment with the help of a Turkish interpreter, and bowed at the end. Both the victims’ and the defendant’s families were present in the courtroom.
During the final defense argument, the defense claimed the teenager fled because, as a Kurdish person, he feared deportation back to Turkey and the potential persecution he might face there.
by MagazineKey4532