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Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization headquartered in New York City that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners. In 1997, Human Rights Watch shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Human Rights Watch conducted research in eight prefectures – Tochigi, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, and Ehime – between January 2020 and February 2023. Researchers interviewed 30 people either in person or online who were facing or have faced criminal interrogation and prosecution. Human Rights Watch also spoke to lawyers, academics, journalists, prosecutors, and suspects’ family members."
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STORY: "Japan's 'hostage justice'system violates rights," published by Human Rights Watch, on May 25, 2023.
GIST: "Japan’s system of “hostage justice” denies criminal suspects the rights to due process and a fair trial, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 101-page report, “Japan’s ‘Hostage Justice’ System,” documents the abusive treatment of criminal suspects in pretrial detention.
The authorities strip suspects of their right to remain silent, question them without a lawyer, coerce them to confess through repeated arrests and denial of bail, and detain them for prolonged periods under constant surveillance in police stations.
The Japanese government should urgently undertake wide-ranging reforms, including amending the criminal procedure code, to ensure detainees their fair trial rights and make investigators and prosecutors more accountable.
Human Rights Watch conducted research in eight prefectures – Tochigi, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, and Ehime – between January 2020 and February 2023. Researchers interviewed 30 people either in person or online who were facing or have faced criminal interrogation and prosecution. Human Rights Watch also spoke to lawyers, academics, journalists, prosecutors, and suspects’ family members.
Japan’s Code of Criminal Procedure allows detaining suspects for up to 23 days before indictment by a judge. The authorities interpret the procedure code to allow interrogations throughout this period. Investigators press suspects to answer questions and confess to the alleged crimes even if they invoke the right to remain silent.
Many suspects are detained in cells in police stations under constant police surveillance, without contact with family members when a contact prohibition order is issued.
Judges routinely allow investigators’ requests for rearrest and prolonged detention. The 23-day detention limit provides no real restriction on pretrial detention, as investigators can use detention for separate, minor crimes or split up charges based on the same set of facts 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 causing injury. The charge was later dropped due to insufficient evidence. She described to Human Rights Watch how her interrogation continued after she exercised her right to remain 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 are not allowed to request bail while in preindictment detention. Even when the detainee is indicted and finally allowed to request bail, those who have not confessed or who have remained silent often have a harder time persuading a judge to approve their bail request. Pretrial detention can last for months or even years.
According to Human Rights Watch, judges approved 94.7 percent of prosecutors’ requests for pretrial detention in 2020, and the conviction rate at trial is 99.8 percent.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Japan is a party, states that anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge must be “promptly” charged before a court.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that provides authoritative analysis of the covenant, has said that 48 hours is ordinarily sufficient time to bring someone before a judge and that any longer delay “must remain absolutely exceptional and be justified under the circumstances.” Furthermore, under the covenant, as a general rule people should not be detained prior to trial.
Human Rights Watch and Innocence Project Japan, a Japanese nongovernmental group, also announced today that they are planning a campaign beginning in June 2023 to end “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 said. “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.”
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Selected Quotes
Yasutaka Sado, was arrested in October 2017 and remained in custody for 14 months before being released on bail. He said:
I attempted to maintain silence but was constantly berated, being told things 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 was interrogated by the prosecutors three times a day, mornings from 9 a.m. to noon, 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 only break was a lawyer meeting or a visit to the hospital.
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Kazuya Yoshino, who was prosecuted and tried for “injury causing death,” talked about his being interrogated in 2010: I told the police my version of events clearly, but they treated the story as if it were a completely different case. Immediately after arrest, the interrogation continued throughout the night – then around 5:30 a.m. they took me to a detention center and the interrogation started again after breakfast. On the second day of my detention, I was taken to see a prosecutor. The prosecutor wanted me to confess that I was in rage and punched the attacker many times to hurt him. I was being interrogated from morning until evening by the police and the prosecutor. As soon as my interrogation with the police ended, I was taken – tied by a rope and in handcuffs – to see the prosecutor. I was made to wait there until around 8 p.m. The actual interrogation by the prosecutor was very brief and I was asked if I “had changed my mind” and would “talk now.” That happened every day – being harassed and forced to confess.
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In 2015, Kayo N. was arrested for conspiracy to commit fraud. After her arrest and detention, the judge issued a contact prohibition order on the grounds that she might conspire to destroy evidence. Kayo N. was not allowed to see anyone but her lawyer for one year, could not receive letters, and could only write to her two adult sons with the permission of the presiding judge. She said:
After I was moved to the Tokyo detention center, I was kept in the “bird cage” [solitary confinement] from April 2016 to July 2017. It was so cold that it felt like sleeping in a field, I had frostbite. I spoke only twice during the day to call out my number. It felt like I was losing my voice. The contact prohibition order was removed one year after my arrest. However, I remained in solitary confinement."
The entire release can be read at;
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/25/japan-hostage-justice-system-violates-rights
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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