GIST: "The Tokyo High Court on May 28 increased the compensation amount awarded to three company executives who were arrested in an “illegal” investigation concerning bogus allegations about weapons exports.

The investigation was so flawed that police officers involved in the case testified in favor of the plaintiffs.

The central and Tokyo metropolitan governments were ordered to pay 166 million yen ($1.2 million) to the plaintiffs, up from 160 million yen awarded by the Tokyo District Court in 2023.

The high court ruled there were fundamental problems in the decisions made by Tokyo police and prosecutors to determine if a crime had even been committed.

The case revolved around Ohkawara Kakohki Co., a Yokohama-based manufacturer and exporter of spray dryers.

The Metropolitan Police Department believed the spray dryers could be used for military purposes, and that Ohkawara Kakohki was exporting the equipment without obtaining government permission.

During voluntary questioning, Masaaki Okawara, the company president, and two other senior officials repeatedly said the equipment was not subject to export restrictions because it did not have a disinfecting function.

Despite those statements, the three were arrested by police and indicted by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in March 2020.

But the charges were dropped in July 2021 after prosecutors realized that the suspects were probably correct in asserting that the equipment was not subject to the export restrictions.

By that time, one of the suspects, a company adviser, had died at the age of 72 before he could clear his name.

In 2021, the surviving executives and other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit, seeking compensation for what they said was an illegal investigation by police and prosecutors.

In December 2023, the Tokyo District Court ruled the investigation was illegal because police failed to conduct an experiment to determine if the equipment had a disinfecting function, as asserted by the executives.

Instead, the court said, Tokyo police made the arrests on vague grounds.

Prosecutors also acted illegally because they indicted the three without making an independent evaluation of what the suspects had said about the equipment, the court ruled.

In the district court trial, a police officer who worked the case gave stunning testimony that the investigation was fabricated.

In the Tokyo High Court trial, another police officer involved in the case testified that there was no reason to make the arrests.

After the high court ruling, Okawara said he hoped investigating agencies would examine the case so that such an incident never happens again.

The Metropolitan Police Department issued a statement saying it would decide how to proceed after carefully going over the ruling."

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