常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

ostracism

政治活動費の問題で罪に問われていた野々村竜太郎被告に対し、懲役3年執行猶予4年の判決が下されました。

Sob story: Weeping former politician gets suspended term

KOBE--A former politician famed for bawling in public avoided prison on July 6 after a court accepted defense arguments that he had suffered enough punishment and humiliation over his embarrassing meltdown.

Ryutaro Nonomura, 49, a former Hyogo prefectural assembly member, was found guilty of illegally receiving public funds for falsified political activities.

Prosecutors had sought a three-year prison sentence. But Nonomura’s lawyers asked for a suspended sentence on grounds that their client had returned all the funds and had already suffered “social ostracism.”

The Kobe District Court suspended the three-year prison sentence for four years.

According to the indictment papers, Nonomura submitted falsified documents to the prefectural assembly to obtain a total of 9.13 million yen ($90,000) in public funds for his political activities between fiscal 2011 and 2013. He claimed to have made 344 business trips during that period.

After doubts were raised about his claims, Nonomura became famous internationally when he held a news conference in July 2014 to explain what he had done.

Video footage of Nonomura bawling and babbling incoherently was watched around the world.

Nonomura resigned as a Hyogo prefectural assembly member without adequately explaining what he used the money for. But he eventually returned 18.34 million yen in expenses for political activities that he claimed from 2011, when he was first elected.

The Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office indicted Nonomura in August 2015. During questioning, Nonomura admitted to the allegations by writing an apology.

However, at his first trial hearing in January, he said the contents of that document were lies and falsifications.

In subsequent court sessions, Nonomura insisted that he had no memory of the allegations against him.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607060057.html

今回取り上げる表現は、“ostracism”です。『ウィズダム英和辞典』(第3版、三省堂)を引いたところ、「追放、排斥、仲間はずれ、村八分」とありました。

Merriam-Webster.comでは、“exclusion by general consent from common privileges or social acceptance”と定義されていました。

ちなみに、動詞形は“ostracize”で、「(社会などから)〈人〉を放逐[排斥]する;のけ者にする」という意味があります。

今回の“social ostracism”で、「社会的制裁」などと解釈できるのではないかと思います。