TOKYO (AFP): The family of a wrongfully arrested Japanese man who died while in prolonged pre-trial detention sued the state Monday, seeking to hold judges accountable for repeatedly denying him bail.
This is the latest in a series of lawsuits challenging Japan's criminal justice system that critics say doesn't always presume innocence and relies heavily on coerced confessions.
In March 2020, Japanese authorities arrested three executives of machinery maker Ohkawara Kakohki for allegedly exporting to China industrial spray dryers deemed convertible to military equipment.
During months-long investigations and detention of the trio, one of them, Shizuo Aishima, was denied bail repeatedly despite being diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Eleven months into his detention, the engineer died at age 72.
A few months after his death, prosecutors dropped the case, including against the other two defendants.
The saga has gained notoriety, with law enforcement apologising and a court ruling that the police investigations were illegal and ordering damages be paid to the firm.
"My husband mumbled to me from his cell, 'is this really the way a human being should be treated?,'" his widow, who is withholding her name for privacy concerns, told a news conference after filing the suit.
"I want to know the reason why they kept rejecting bail to someone who was terminally ill," she said.
With her and her two sons as its plaintiffs, the case argues more than 30 judges who kept warranting his detention were complicit in Japan's so-called "hostage justice".
Campaigners say lengthy pre-trial confinement is meted out too easily in Japan and that unless suspects confess, judges are unlikely to approve bail.
This is because judges "see confessions as the behaviour of someone who has accepted what they did and therefore has no motive to destroy evidence or flee", Takashi Takano, lead lawyer for the lawsuit, told reporters.
In Aishima's case, 37 judges were involved in denying him bail, pointing to "structural and organisational problems inherent in the criminal justice system", a complaint for the case read.
The justice ministry, meanwhile, argues on its website the "Japanese criminal justice system does not force confessions by unduly holding suspects and defendants in custody".
Japan has "strict requirements and procedures" in place for holding suspects and defendants in custody, "with due consideration given to the guarantee of human rights", it says.
Aishima's family is seeking 170 million yen ($1.1 million) in damages.
"Hostage justice" is a term popularised by ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn's months-long, 2018-2019 detention and has been repeatedly decried by international rights bodies.
Another case in point is Iwao Hakamada, once the world's longest-serving death-row inmate. His convictions -- quashed in 2024 -- relied partly on confessions made during what the Supreme Court ruled were "inhumane" interrogations.
Recent years have seen others initiate lawsuits to raise awareness of the issue, including ex-chairman of major Japanese publishing house Kadokawa who was arrested and indicted in 2022 over bribery charges related to the Olympics hosted a year earlier. -- AFP
