(Tokyo) – Japan’s system of “hostage justice” denies prison suspects the rights to due course of and a good trial, Human Rights Watch stated in a report launched in the present day.
The 101-page report, “Japan’s ‘Hostage Justice’ System,” paperwork the abusive therapy of prison suspects in pretrial detention. The authorities strip suspects of their proper to stay silent, query them with out a lawyer, coerce them to admit by way of repeated arrests and denial of bail, and detain them for extended durations beneath fixed surveillance in police stations. The Japanese authorities ought to urgently undertake wide-ranging reforms, together with amending the prison process code, to make sure detainees their honest trial rights and make investigators and prosecutors extra accountable.
“Japan’s ‘hostage justice’ system denies people arrested their rights to a presumption of innocence, a prompt and fair bail hearing, and access to counsel during questioning,” stated Kanae Doi, Japan director at Human Rights Watch. “These abusive practices have resulted in lives and families being torn apart, as well as wrongful convictions.”
Human Rights Watch performed analysis in eight prefectures – Tochigi, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, and Ehime – between January 2020 and February 2023. Researchers interviewed 30 folks both in particular person or on-line who had been dealing with or have confronted prison interrogation and prosecution. Human Rights Watch additionally spoke to attorneys, lecturers, journalists, prosecutors, and suspects’ members of the family.
Japan’s Code of Criminal Procedure permits detaining suspects for as much as 23 days earlier than indictment by a choose. The authorities interpret the process code to permit interrogations all through this era. Investigators press suspects to reply questions and confess to the alleged crimes even when they invoke the best to stay silent.
Many suspects are detained in cells in police stations beneath fixed police surveillance, with out contact with members of the family when a contact prohibition order is issued.
Judges routinely enable investigators’ requests for rearrest and extended detention. The 23-day detention restrict supplies no actual restriction on pretrial detention, as investigators can use detention for separate, minor crimes or cut up up costs based mostly on the identical set of info as an excuse to rearrest and detain suspects repeatedly.
Hidemi T. was arrested in September 2018 on suspicion of abusing her 7-month-old son and charged with inflicting harm. The cost was later dropped as a consequence of inadequate proof. She described to Human Rights Watch how her interrogation continued after she exercised her proper to stay silent. “I told the police that I would remain silent immediately after my arrest. The police then became frustrated and continued to interrogate me, still trying to get me to confess that I had assaulted my son.”
Detainees should not allowed to request bail whereas in preindictment detention. Even when the detainee is indicted and at last allowed to request bail, those that haven’t confessed or who’ve remained silent typically have a more durable time persuading a choose to approve their bail request. Pretrial detention can final for months and even years.
According to Human Rights Watch, judges authorized 94.7 p.c of prosecutors’ requests for pretrial detention in 2020, and the conviction price at trial is 99.8 p.c.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Japan is a celebration, states that anybody arrested or detained on a prison cost have to be “promptly” charged earlier than a courtroom. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the worldwide skilled physique that gives authoritative evaluation of the covenant, has stated that 48 hours is ordinarily enough time to convey somebody earlier than a choose and that any longer delay “must remain absolutely exceptional and be justified under the circumstances.” Furthermore, beneath the covenant, as a common rule folks shouldn’t be detained previous to trial.
Human Rights Watch and Innocence Project Japan, a Japanese nongovernmental group, additionally introduced in the present day that they’re planning a marketing campaign starting in June 2023 to finish “hostage justice.”
“Japanese authorities should act urgently to reform the criminal justice system to respect everyone’s rights to due process and to a fair trial,” Doi stated. “Japan should ensure the right to apply for bail during preindictment detention and reform the bail law to bring it in line with international standards of presumption of innocence and individual liberty.”
Selected Quotes
Yasutaka Sado, was arrested in October 2017 and remained in custody for 14 months earlier than being launched on bail. He stated:
I tried to keep up silence however was continuously berated, being instructed issues like “you are maintaining silence because you are guilty” or “don’t you understand how much trouble you are causing to others by maintaining silence?” I used to be interrogated by the prosecutors 3 times a day, mornings from 9 a.m. to midday, afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and nights from 7 or 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. This continued for 20 days. The solely break was a lawyer assembly or a go to to the hospital.
Kazuya Yoshino, who was prosecuted and tried for “injury causing death,” talked about his being interrogated in 2010:
I instructed the police my model of occasions clearly, however they handled the story as if it had been a totally completely different case. Immediately after arrest, the interrogation continued all through the evening – then round 5:30 a.m. they took me to a detention heart and the interrogation began once more after breakfast. On the second day of my detention, I used to be taken to see a prosecutor. The prosecutor wished me to admit that I used to be in rage and punched the attacker many occasions to harm him. I used to be being interrogated from morning till night by the police and the prosecutor. As quickly as my interrogation with the police ended, I used to be taken – tied by a rope and in handcuffs – to see the prosecutor. I used to be made to attend there till round 8 p.m. The precise interrogation by the prosecutor was very transient and I used to be requested if I “had changed my mind” and would “talk now.” That occurred every single day – being harassed and compelled to admit.
In 2015, Kayo N. was arrested for conspiracy to commit fraud. After her arrest and detention, the choose issued a contact prohibition order on the grounds that she would possibly conspire to destroy proof. Kayo N. was not allowed to see anybody however her lawyer for one yr, couldn’t obtain letters, and will solely write to her two grownup sons with the permission of the presiding choose. She stated:
After I used to be moved to the Tokyo detention heart, I used to be stored within the “bird cage” [solitary confinement] from April 2016 to July 2017. It was so chilly that it felt like sleeping in a subject, I had frostbite. I spoke solely twice throughout the day to name out my quantity. It felt like I used to be dropping my voice. The contact prohibition order was eliminated one yr after my arrest. However, I remained in solitary confinement.