Kuboki Noboru

Case Summary

Kuboki Noboru severely beat four civilian coolies - Misar Ali for taking fruit from a tree, Gopal and Najim Sheik for asking to be excused from work as they were ill, and Rustam Ali for leaving work to go home without permission. The prosecution lawyer submitted that on each occasion Kuboki beat the coolie with a stick into unconsciousness and thereby caused their deaths, whereas the defence submitted that Kuboki only administered light beatings to two coolies and the cause of their deaths was malaria.

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http://www.legal-tools.org/doc/c5a369/

Kuboki's petition raised the fact that the he was a Christian and therefore could not have countenanced committing these crimes. 

Although the JAG review report noted the discrepancies in the prosecution witnesses' statements, he still found no reason that the court should not have accepted the evidence that the Kuboki had beaten the four coolies and thereby caused their deaths. Notably, the victims died from malaria contracted after the alleged beatings. Naturally, the defense claimed that the malaria was not a result of the beatings whereas the Prosecution claims otherwise.