Yeah, it's pretty scary to live in countries that have higher incarceration rates than China, Russia, or North Korea.

They hand out 25 year sentences like candy.

"North Korea"

Citation please.

North Korea have a network of internment camps where regime opponents are imprisoned - nobody really knows what the imprisonment rate is, but estimates[0] are 250,000-300,000 people.

On a per capita rate, they would be about even with the United States (around 700 per 100k[1]) at the top end of estimates - which is worrying considering North Korea also practice a policy of "three generations of punishment" where entire families are collectively punished and you have children being born in camps.

The land of the free and the most totalitarian state in the world with a horrible history of human rights abuses - it really shouldn't even be a contest as to who is worse, but unfortunately it is.

[0] http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13618693-the-hidden-gulag

[1] Doesn't include territories, juveniles, military prison or immigration detention. Including those on parole or probation it increases to 3.2% of the population.

31 sources on this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_North_Korea

Though I don't see anything definite on prison rates. Hard to get precise info out of N Korea. This absolute dismal circumstances the prisoners suffer is clear though.

You don't think that does it justice? I don't know the details of the case, but imagine being locked up for two years yourself, regardless of the crime. I'm 21 and I know I would feel like it's forever. I'd do anything to better my life after that. At least that's what I tell myself now, never having been imprisoned.

Now the person being tried here is not 21 anymore and he is actually guilty of something and should be punished... but 25 years, really?

It doesn't sound like he's saying it's too short.

To put this in context, for a violent crime you would probably not get more than 2 years in Sweden either as a first time offender, which makes his sentence extremely harsh actually.

On top of that in Sweden you only serve two thirds of the time, regardless of crime and behavior. (Not sure if this is a good thing though...)