Every so often a high-profile example of book theft makes the news. The crime in question does not concern hard-up students helping themselves to textbooks in Foyles. Rather it details cases of premeditated, often audacious, theft of beautiful and rare books.It turns out that Hakimzadeh was caught once before doing the same thing back in the 90s and got off nearly scot-free. (Irrelevant aside: is "scot free" an ethnic slur? Probably not.)In the other cases that Richardson discusses, the perps all got off with what were, to my mind, ridiculously light sentences. To someone like Hakimzadeh, who allegedly spent his wedding night cleaning his books, the possibility of a two-year sentence or, better yet, a slap on the wrist or settling out of court must seem like a risk well worth taking.
It happened in January, when Farhad Hakimzadeh, an Iranian businessman and book collector, was given a two-year sentence for cutting and stealing pages from antiquarian books in the British and Bodleian libraries over seven years. Hakimzadeh, 60, said he took the pages, from texts that date back to the 16th century and deal with European and Middle Eastern relations, only to augment his own collection. It was proved, however, that he was using stolen single pages to increase the value of books he already owned, which he could then sell. One such page contained a 500-year-old map painted by Hans Holbein, an artist in the court of Henry VIII, worth £32,000.
Stronger sentences are needed, like 25 years to life. Personally, as a non-criminal who has a difficult time fathoming the criminal mind, execution wouldn't bother me a bit, at least for a repeat offense.
Also worth noting is that Hakimzadeh is obviously not ethnically British and is likely an immigrant. Shocking.
Hi Dennis,
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, the term "scot free" refers to the unusual third option available in Scottish courts: the verdict of "Not Proven" (which is the court's way of saying "we know you're guilty, but couldn't make the case."
I've just looked around online a bit, and it does seem that support for my account is rather thin on the ground. It seems awfully reasonable, though, and I dimly recall my Scottish mum, when I first heard from her about the existence of "Not Proven" verdicts, telling me that that was where "scot free" came from.
ReplyDeleteSo I suppose I might be mistaken here. It seems more plausible my way, though, given that the term, as usually used, doesn't mean "didn't pay his taxes", but something much more like "got away with murder".
Apologies also for the missing parenthesis above.
Give him a taste of Iranian-style justice - off with his hands!
ReplyDeleteDennis,
ReplyDeleteWhile their crimes are exceptionally annoying, defacers of rare books probably belong with the frotteurs and thieves of endangered birds' eggs; perpetrators of crimes of compulsion. They turn up all the time.
Martin: I suppose it all depends on one's opinion of the crime's severity. A frotteur in most cases causes no lasting damage, while someone who cuts up or steals a rare book is causing severe harm to an irreplaceable part of a nations' cultural patrimony.
ReplyDelete