Jerusalem – Israeli news service Kikar Shabbat reports that a Tel Aviv court has sentenced Benzion Miller to three years behind bars today for his part in the drug smuggling episode that landed three chareidi yeshiva bochurim from Bnei Brak in a Japanese jail in April 2008.
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The three bochurim were told that they were being paid $1000 each to bring antiques from Holland to Japan and were unaware that there was 3.6 million dollars worth of illegal substances hidden in a false bottom of the suitcases given to them by Miller. Customs officials in Japan immediately noticed that something was amiss and all three were taken into custody and later imprisoned.
Miller was found guilty after the parents of all three boys testified against him. The parents of the three imprisoned boys told Kikar Shabbos that the Miller’s sentence was too light and expressed dissatisfaction with today’s ruling.
Miller was arrested for allegedly providing the three with the drug laden suitcases. The bochurim claimed all along that Miller, who was involved in a drug smuggling ring, asked them to take the suitcases from Holland to Japan without telling them that there was a wealth of illegal substances hidden inside the suitcases.
In a hearing for Yosef Bondo, the youngest of the three boys who is now being held in a Beer Sheva prison, Bondo did not hesitate to cast the blame squarely on Miller’s shoulders.
this case needs to be appealed, and this guy should serve for life.
what a sick joke this sentence is,
this piece of human garbage,should have a gotten,life in prison and without the possibility of parole
They should have given him 3 year per bochur, and have him serve his sentence in Japan!
This man knowingly and willingly convinced three young and naive boys to do something which they did not know was illegal, and as such, they were imprisoned.
A person such as Miller is a Rodeif, the Torah is mafker his daam.
In a time when justice is not found in the houses of law, we are obligated to cause a system of true justice to come about by our own means.
3 Years?! What a joke!
The sentence for Miller is clearly too lenient but the boys should also be made to serve long prison terms as a deterrent against others engaging in the same stupid behavor (although they can hopefully serve those sentences in an Israeli jail). We should not be making excuses that they were “naive” or “entrapped” or other reasons. They are old enough to understand that you don’t get paid legally to “smuggle” anything, whether antiques or drugs or sheitels.
only 3 years.???? he should be sitting in jail for life. or maybe taken to japan to sit in this jail these bucharim are nebech sitting in. let him feel their pain and uncomforablity.
to # 6 until its your child………. watch what you say!!!!!
to #6
in the torah there’s no such thing as giving someone a harsher punishment than he deserves, just to deter others from “engaging in the same stupid behavor”
This piece of slime garbage deserves like an eid zomeim. Same as his victims. Total of all the time the boys spent and will spend in jail. Double it like a goniff because he was goinev daas of the boys. And in Japan not in the comfort of an Israeli jail.
What a ridiculous joke of a sentence.
It is clear that the courts cannot punish this Miller pile of doodoo to the extent necessary after what he did to them. Three years??
Hashem is the ultimate judge. Knowing this, I do not doubt the hell He has prepared for Miller.
May Hashem give the three bochurim continuous strength, optimism, and hatzlacha this year and may we all be zocheh to greet Moshiach tzidkeinu b’mhaira b’yamainu, amein!
G’mar chasima tova
To #3 Eli – Gut Gezugt. But thruthfully he should get a total of all 3 sentences – not for what he did, but so that others don’t follow his disgusting footsteps (l’maan yishmu v’yirou)
so maybe its better not to have ‘temimusdik’ kids….
מען דארף א בענקל מיט א קאלט גלעזל וואסער פאר מען הערט אז א ארכי מערדער ווי דער מיללער וואס האט אריינגעפעקלט 3 אינגע אומשולדיגע בחורים אין תפיסה, אלע פון זיי פאר 7 יאר תפיסה און מער – אזא מערדער זאל באקומען בלויז 3 יאר אין די צייט וואס זיינע קרבנות באקומען דאפלט און טריפלט!
miller should get a combination of the bochurims’ sentences multiply by 2 and than and only then be release. Number 6 are you for real. There are people who are no so up to the lastest shtick and get caught up. I read where somebody from Beligian gave a can of coffee to a man for his brother in Israel. The man discovered the coffee was open and inside was diamond. He did not take it and left it in Beligian and brought a close can and was stopped by police when he enter Israel. The police were looking for this smuggling. This was a grown man and had the smarts to think
but they are bochurim looking for a chance to travel, they did not think that far in front.
They are innocent and should not be punished at all. It is costing millions and millions of hard earn Jewish money to defend them. You idea to STINKS. and now please
reply you have done tshuva on your idea
Let us stop making excuses for the three Yeshivah boys as being “naive”. If they didn’t know that the deal regarding the antiques wasn’t Kosher, then they should have known.
We need a Pidyom Shuvuyim campaign!
Where are all the pidyon shevuyim calls? Won’t be long.
Uman bashers Miller bashers
Kall yisroel is so into judgement when true judgement belongs to Hashem.
Whatever became of torah 282 Azamra. You have to be dan lekaf zchus every person even a rusha gamur. My dear brothers we are days before yom kippur do we really want Hashem to judge us by our comments we make against other jews. Yidden travel to Uman lets bash them, yidden stand up for their schools, bash them. When will this stop?
I’m not ready to cast any stones on anyone of my brothers. Maybe you can all stand down and start trusting Hashem’s decisions over the human element. Hashem is still in charge last time I checked.
gmar tov
I’m sure, if this all is true, he’s a bad guy. But I don’t believe the boys were so innocent. For over 40 years people have been told again and again not to take packages they haven’t looked at. It’s been discussed in every airport, every time somebody flies, and 10 times that much in Israel. I think they knew they were smuggling something illegal. Whether or not they knew it was drugs, they risked taking something truly dangerous on board and putting everyone’s lives in danger. So I hold them responsible, also. If Hashem will judge this man, Hashem will also judge those boys because the truth is there.
#9 -yes there is! you’ve missed the Rambam’s explanation for 4 and 5 times payment for shor and seh, moreh nvuchim 3:42. he applies this concept in numerous places. v’chol yisroel yishmu v’yiro’u means there is a detterent component in the punishment.
Hopefully he’ll die of syphilis or some other STD while in prison, he can then finish his sentence in hell
let him burn in hell .but before that,let him do 20 years in a Turkish jail, like the actor who plays Billy Hayes( Brad Davis) in Midnight Express. that’s the least this scum should do.
or maybe, forget jail and tear this bastard limb from limb. what a chutzpah,dealing drugs, and screwing the boys.
Every time you try to fly, they ask you a million questions about your luggage. Who packed? Were you there? Did anyone give you anything? etc. These “naive” boys (actually, young men), could have been carrying bombs which would have endangered everyone on the plane (and in the city in which they landed). They were told that they were carrying more than just luggage. They may not have known that it was drugs, but they certainly were aware that it was not legal. They deserve a punishment, perhaps less severe than that which they are receiving, but still, a punishment. This character, however, should have been extradited to Japan. Let the other three serve in Israel, and let him serve in Japan.
I do not understand, why it is ok to testify against miller, send him to prison vilify him, yet child molesters get treated with kid gloves and one is not permitted to testify against them?
to number 19 and other vin commutator bashers
Kall yisroel is so into judgement when true judgement belongs to Hashem.
Whatever became of torah 282 Azamra. You have to be dan lekaf zchus every person even a rusha gamur, and even VIN commentators . My dear brothers we are days before yom kippur do we really want Hashem to judge you by your comments….