The second trial was very unfavorable to the prosecution, as the defendant Terauchi and his defense lawyer not only found several witnesses to prove that Terauchi had ordered the massacre, but they also denied the massacre of innocent civilians, and they found some evidence to prove that the civilians were no longer civilians, but armed rebels, so that the charge of Terauchi masaki's massacre of civilians could not be established.

But the prosecution quickly brought new witnesses to testify that Terauchi was a massacre, and whether he was ordered to act or not, what he did was already a massacre. The two sides come and go, see the moves, and the courtroom is very lively.

The trial lasted for three full days, and the two sides used almost all the means and cards, and the prosecution pointed out all the charges of Terauchi Masashi one by one and asked all the witnesses to testify in court, and all the evidence that could be produced was taken out.

And Terauchi Masashi refused to admit his crime, believing that everything was ordered by his superiors, he was just a soldier, just acting on orders, and the crime should not be borne by him, and his defense lawyer also asked him to find a lot of witnesses to prove this.

After the second trial, the next step was to pronounce the verdict, and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East decided to complete the trial and sentence one war criminal at once, so the next step was to pronounce the sentence on Terauchi Masatsuki.

A few days before the verdict was pronounced, public opinion was in an uproar, and according to the results of the second trial, some people believed that it was difficult for Terauchi to be convicted of massacre of civilians, after all, it had been many years. It is difficult to find direct evidence, and so far almost all of the witnesses sought by both sides have been the injured party and witnesses in relation to the accused. There are no third-party witnesses, but if the prosecution charges Terauchi with the crime of aggression is almost nine times certain, it is difficult to say whether the prosecution or the court will allow the charge of aggression.

International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Conference Room.

Qin Liankui looked at the judges on both sides and said: "Tomorrow will be the verdict of Terauchi Zhengyi, now what you have in front of you is a detailed record of the process of the first two trials, some judges have also personally participated in the trial, and now we are going to convict Terauchi Zhengyi." Let's all look at the transcript of the trial, how exactly we should be convicted, and hopefully we can come to a conclusion today."

The judges of various countries opened the trial records in front of them and looked at them. Qin Liankui also carefully watched the trial record process about Zhengyi in the temple, and there was only the rustling sound of paper turning in the conference room.

Half an hour later, all the judges had finished reading the trial records, and Qin Liankui looked at everyone and said, "Everyone." I'm sure you've all finished reading it. Now, please have your say! ”

Ri Wei-jong, the representative of the DPRK judges, was the first to stand up and said: "Justice, judges, I think that Terauchi Zhengyi is guilty of the crime of unleashing war, the crime against humanity, and the crime of aggression, and he should be sentenced to death!" ”

Zhang Ruao, representative of Judge Huaguo, said: "Justice, judges, judging from the trial records and the fact that Terauchi Masashi did not repent in the slightest during the trial and tried to evade sanctions, I believe that the prosecution has convicted him of all the charges against him, and given his attitude at the time of trial, he should be sentenced heavily." Set an example! ”

Seeing that the representatives of judges from Huaguo expressed their views, the representatives of judges from some other Asian countries stood up one after another to express their views. The opinions are basically similar to those of the representatives of the judges of Huaguo, and even if there are differences, they are not far apart.

However, Jonathan, the representative of the British judge, stood up and said: "Justice, judges, I think that from the situation in the course of these two trials, the evidence of the prosecution's accusation that Terauchi Masashi is guilty of unleashing war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression is slightly insufficient, and the witnesses found and the evidence provided by the monitoring party are not enough to prove that Terauchi Masashi is guilty of these crimes, and the witnesses are all injured parties, and the testimony they say is problematic in legal effect, unless the monitoring party can find a third-party witness!" ”

After listening to the words of British Judge Jonathan, Judge Huaguo's representative Zhang Ruao said coldly: "Judge Jonathan, I think you are picking bones in eggs and arguing with strong words, are you a judge or a defense lawyer?" By third-party witnesses, do you mean them? ”

Jonathan said: "The third-party witness is a person other than the injured party and the defendant, such as Westerners, and other foreigners in North Korea and China except for Hua and North Koreans!" ”

Zhang Ruao smiled angrily: "Ha, I really don't understand why you have such an idea, do you know what slaughter is?" This means that the injured party is killed without the slightest ability to resist, and in this case, not to mention the third-party witnesses, even if there are a large number of victims, the chances of surviving are extremely slim, even if a third party is present at the time, what do you think is the chance that they will survive? ”

Jonathan said: "Sir, we are judges, we are based on the law, we can't be emotional, and using the witnesses of the injured party to testify is the same as letting the victim's family or relatives testify in court, how much credibility do you think such testimony has?" Our judges' judgments are based on evidence and the letter of the law! ”

After Jonathan finished speaking, the representatives of judges from several Western countries expressed their views one after another, and their positions were all the same as Jonathan's, which made Jonathan gain almost half of the support, and he still had a faint advantage in numbers, which made Zhang Ruao, the representative of the judges of Huaguo, and Li Weizhong, the representative of the DPRK, secretly anxious.

Among the judges, there are also two camps, one side is headed by Zhang Ruao, the representative of the Chinese judge, and the other is headed by Jonathan, the representative of the British judge, and Qin Liankui is very clear about the thoughts of both sides, Zhang Ruao, Li Weizhong and others want to cause the war criminals such as Zhengyi in the temple to die, while Jonathan and others are simply vindictive, singing the opposite, and saying anything about upholding the justice of the law is simply nonsense.

Seeing that the two sides were arguing endlessly, Qin Liankui raised his hand and pressed it, and the judges of various countries immediately stopped arguing when they saw that he was going to speak. Qin Liankui said: "Ladies and gentlemen, according to everyone's own point of view, it is almost divided into two points of view, one is that the temple is guilty, and the other view is that the evidence is insufficient, and if there is a third-party witness, it can be convicted. I would like to remind you here that since they are condemned as war criminals, they are clearly guilty, otherwise, you would not be here, this is unanimously agreed by all governments, so I hope you will not quarrel over whether there is insufficient evidence! Now what we're going to do is we're going to talk about the size of their charges and how they should be sentenced, and that's what needs to be discussed in today's meeting, so let's get started! ”

The representatives of the judges looked at each other, and no one thought that Qin Liankui would make a final decision on this issue, especially the British judge Jonathan, who was obviously extremely unconvinced, he thought that Qin Liankui was a Chinese, so he favored Zhang Ruao, the representative of the Chinese judges, but now Qin Liankui has set the tone in this matter, and Qin Liankui has brought out the governments, Jonathan does not dare to dwell too much on this issue, but he is extremely dissatisfied in his heart.

It was Li Weizhong who jumped out first and said: "Justices and judges, Terauchi Zhengyi has caused too many killings in our country and China, what I am talking about here is not how many Qing and Korean troops he commanded the army to kill, but his army killed too many innocent civilians, what he has done has reached the point where the law is intolerable and helpless, I think he should be sentenced to death!" ”

"I disagree!" Jonathan immediately objected, he said: "Terauchi Masashi is guilty, on this point, I don't object, after all, because of his cause, many innocent civilians died, but I don't agree with sentencing him to death, I think a person is guilty, but it doesn't have to be sentenced to death, the death penalty is too heavy for a former prime minister of a country!" And Masaki Terauchi is already very old, in terms of his age and physical condition, there are not many years to live, why should we be so cruel? Wouldn't it be good for him to spend the rest of his life in prison and let him repent of the sins he had committed in prison? In any case, Terauchi Masashi was once famous all over the world, and he was once a person who had a great influence on the world! ”

As soon as Jonathan said this, almost all the representatives of judges in Western countries agreed, including the representatives of the British younger brother of the Dominion of India, and the judges of several other Buddhist countries in Asian countries said that the death sentence imposed on Terauchi Masayi was too heavy, and the punishment should be reduced, and the sentence could be life or 20 years in prison.

It seems that there are not many representatives, and even several representatives of the member states of the Federation of Great China have such thoughts, especially the representatives of Nepal and Bhutan, Siam, etc., and their words show that the death penalty is too heavy.

Qin Liankui looked at Zhang Ruao, Zhang Ruao stood up and said: "Your Excellency, judges, it is indeed as Judge Jonathan said, for a person of the age of Terauchi Zhengyi, there is little difference between a death sentence and life imprisonment, or even twenty years in prison, because it is difficult to say whether he can live for another twenty years. However, there is no difference between Terauchi Masayoshi and Terauchi, but it is also different for us, for the people of the countries that have been harmed, and for the people of the countries that have not been harmed.

The sentencing of Terauchi Masashi to death shows the strength and fairness of the punishment of war criminals who have unjustly started wars and inflicted great disasters on the people of other countries. And now that most countries in the world impose the death penalty on criminals who have laid down serious crimes, can we ignore the crimes he once laid down just because Terauchi Masayi is an aristocrat and a former prime minister with a high status in Japan? How unfair is this to the victims? (To be continued......)