It sounds to me as though the Judge was a stupid bleeding heart to let the perpetrators off lightly just because they were inept. It is the amateurs who often panic and kill the victims. I wonder if the victim's being Chinese made the crime seem less serious.
Bill, you take some things far too literally. No, the judge didn't go lightly on them. In fact, he threw the book at them, but, again from memory, there was a legal catch - since the young lady wasn't actually a captive when the ransom was demanded, it wasn't kidnap, it was something like "depriving her of her freedom". The legal eagles will know the one. I think they got the maximum for that. If it had been kidnap, they'd probably still be staring at a cell wall.
And the only funny aspect of it was their stupidity, and I though I'd made that quite plain. The fact that Gloria was able to shrug it off and get on with her life impressed the hell outta me.
One final point: There is a very large Chinese population in Zild, especially in that area of the country. Believe me, justice in New Zealand isn't always applied justly but when it misfires it's not on the basis of race or creed.
