get off lightly वाक्य

Wu Hsing-jung, wife of Chen Shao-yu, one of the men being held, said Chinese officials had informed her by phone two weeks ago that the four would " get off lightly ."
I do have a good old laugh to myself though when other editors get sanctioned for lesser things when I manage at times to get off lightly or even altogether, like when I troll the user pages of others or make undiscussed tendentious edits.
When a youth gets off lightly because of some technicality in the law, a skillful defense lawyer or a prosecutor's lack of preparation, Humes shows the youth's victim " standing shell-shocked in the back of the courtroom, " looking on forlornly as the judge, shuffling papers on the bench, calls the next case.