Chapter Three
The Preliminary Court Hearing after Indictment
Having returned to Japan, via the island of Okinawa, on August 3rd 2009, coupled with the statement made by the Court appointed lawyer having learned of the premature departure from Italy by Yamaguchi and Watanabe, it was not expected that Yamaguchi or Watanabe would fly back to Italy, travel to Como, and be present at the September 16th 2010, court hearing. As it turns out that expectation was correct, Yamaguchi and Watanabe were long gone out of the reach of the Italian Authorities.
However, both Yamaguchi and Watanabe in not appearing before the court were actually seen to be destroying their own defence and substantiating the falsities of their various statements.
It has to be questioned as to why Yamaguchi and Watanabe did not turn up if what Yamaguchi had emphatically claimed was correct. He did state that he was the legal owner of all these Financial Instruments, so let’s get this straight. Most people if they were the real legal owners of anything which was subject to a court case, would turn up at the court if only to protect their interests in their legal ownership. I certainly would and no doubt the majority of people around the world would, so Yamaguchi and Watanabe are, in their expected absence ridiculing and denying their own statements, isn’t that perjury in its finest form. How many more lies told by Yamaguchi and Watanabe, are going to be uncovered within the evidence presented to the Como court by the prosecution?
Looking plainly at the situation, both Yamaguchi and Watanabe were heading, at quite an enormous speed, for conviction and possibly anything from a 2 - 10 year prison sentence.
As explained previously, Yamaguchi was just not going to face another prison sentence, no matter what, after having spent 12 years in a Japanese prison for fraud back in the 80’s and 90’s.
It also becomes plainly obvious that despite their so-called friendship and all the sweet talk to Alessandro Santi, they had abandoned Alessandro Santi in totality, and their own interests. The question now is whether, as stated previously, Alessandro Santi, at 73 years of age, is going to be the “Fall Guy” for the unlawful activities of Yamaguchi and Watanabe.
With the embarrassment of the Italian police and the courts, allowing both Yamaguchi and Watanabe to escape from justice, by what could be described partially as incompetence, they needed to seriously justify their own existence otherwise a substantial amount of tax payers money would be seen to have been totally wasted by the aforementioned incompetence, for which serious questions may be raised and for which “Heads might be forced to roll”.
Alessandro Santi, who was now becoming increasingly nervous and severely worried by the fact that Yamaguchi and Watanabe had abandoned him to face the courts and charges alone, may now be forced by events to get the best deal possible that he and his lawyers could achieve.
This was a fact that Alessandro Santi admitted to a friend in an email prior to the court hearing in which he stated that, quote “He now realises he was conned by Yamaguchi and Watanabe whereby his so-called friendship with the two of them had diminished entirely and turned to hatred, having realised now that they were crooks of the highest order and had used him within their unlawful operations through coercing him with false stories at a time when he was totally vulnerable based upon his wife’s previous illness with cancer”.
Justice is about to be shown that it does not segregate the masterminds behind such crimes from those who are effectively innocent persons coerced by plausible stories of fantasies, lies, and wealth, some of whom may have been experiencing some distortion in their thinking by their own unfortunate recent or past experiences.
In my opinion such consideration of the aforementioned facts should always be taken into account. In this case however, the embarrassment of the police and courts may take precedence over such consideration whereby Alessandro Santi becomes the “Fall Guy” and the case closed with satisfactory results for the Police and the courts, justifying their existence.
There is another salient point that applies to the majority of the people of the world, which is the cost or financial resources to be able to defend oneself in such court case. Lawyers do not appear to care where the money comes from provided they get paid. Remember Yamaguchi and Watanabe’s lawyer was a court appointed lawyer as they were foreigners, and so paid for by the Italian tax payers.
Alessandro Santi’s situation was totally different and he knew it.
Alessandro Santi was not a man of exceptional wealth facing a very expensive court case, a case that would take up a substantial amount of his time and the time of his lawyers. All in all an expensive situation that Alessandro Santi, like the majority of people, could not afford. Given the situation that Alessandro Santi found himself in, abandoned by the very two Japanese men he trusted and who he had greatly assisted, 73 years of age, having recently gone through a serious cancerous experience with his wife, and facing the possibility of being convicted and being sentenced to time in prison, the opinions open to him were very limited.
The question for Alessandro Santi was whether Yamaguchi and Watanabe would turn up for the court hearing to support him, brandishing hard evidence that they may have gained after arriving back in Japan. A situation that is unlikely given the circumstances. In one way it was one hope that would finally put this experience behind him. In another way and deep down in Alessandro Santi’s heart he knew there was nothing there for him to cling his hopes to as quietly, to himself, he agreed with the lawyer appointed by the court that neither Yamaguchi nor Watanabe would be seen or heard from again.
The morning of September 16th 2010 broke with sunshine and a warm breeze. Alessandro Santi was preparing himself, both physically and mentally, for attending the court.
Driving himself the short journey to Como, Italy, and preparing himself to meet with his lawyers, he finally arrived at the court well before court opening times to be briefed by his lawyers, but noticing that Yamaguchi and Watanabe were nowhere to be seen, not at that moment in time anyway.
The nervousness and concern was beginning to show when his lawyer confirmed that the lawyer for Yamaguchi and Watanabe was totally correct and that Yamaguchi and Watanabe had fled the country and had not turned up to the court. The case would be heard in their absence. Not much of a consoling effect for Alessandro Santi, but one he now had to face alone.
The case number was finally called by the clerk to the court. Alessandro Santi, his lawyers and the deputy duty court lawyer entered the courtroom, followed shortly after by the judge. “All Stand”, in Italian, was the call from the court attendant as the Judge entered the court through the door leading to the judge’s chambers.
The prosecutor rising to his feet explained to the Judge that neither Yamaguchi nor Watanabe were present and therefore the duty court lawyer would represent them as the previous court appointed lawyer had resigned from representing them, evidenced by a letter notifying the court, the prosecutor’s office and the police, dated 28th August 2010, for which a second accompanying letter attached to the first letter declared his resignation on the grounds that both Yamaguchi and Watanabe had left Italy and that his opinion was that their act was deliberate to avoid justice whereby he could not justify representing the two Japanese men. The prosecutor further notified the court that for the hearing the deputy duty court lawyer had been requested to stand in as defence lawyer for Yamaguchi and Watanabe.
Hearing the report of the prosecutor and unquestionably noticing the absence of the two Japanese men, the judge in her wisdom, decided that there was additional work for the prosecution and the police to undertake to determine whether Yamaguchi and Watanabe were intending to turn up at the hearing, or, whether they had deliberately evaded justice and had no intention of turning up at this hearing or any future hearing.
The case was subsequently adjourned to October 12th 2010, with the judge explaining that there would be no further adjournments and the case would proceed on October 12th with or without Yamaguchi and Watanabe’s presence.