17 year old sumo wrestler beaten to death on June 26 by his stablemaster and other senior members of the stable. The murderers were finally arrested on February 8th.
The stablemaster admitted that he hit the kid with a beer bottle “to discipline him”. He had also been beaten with a baseball bat and died with cuts and bruises all over his body.
My commentary – The thing that bothers me most about this case is how it shows the old boy network. Between June and February no arrests? Don’t you at least bring them up on charges and release them first? There seems to have been a lot of phone calls and meetings about “the image of Sumo”. Finally someone made the right decision and decided they didn’t need to protect these guys. Note that the stablemaster is “former stablemaster” now and being prosecuted under his original name. That means he was demoted, then had his Sumo credentials taken away, finally he’s been arrested.
Don’t get your hopes up that these guys will be jailed a long time, though… there’s still the trial to come and maybe lots of deals to be made by then. I want the book thrown at them, but I don’t have my hopes too high.
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