Friday, November 30, 2012

Conference on Mr. Suraj’s Case Held by the Minister of Justice

Today in the morning, Minister of Justice Taki held a report conference about investigation results on Mr. Suraj’s case.
Since former Minister of Justice Chiba previously decided to conduct an investigation about this case, the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice engaged in further investigation, and this time the results were reported, including the content of the decision for non-prosecution made in this year’s July.
The content of this report was identical to the Chiba Prosecutor Office’s reasons for the non-prosecution decision, that is throughout the incident restraining actions, usage of restrain equipment and first aid measures by immigration employees were all legal, and there is no causal relationship between actions taken by immigration and Mr. Suraj’s death.
What is irritating is that Minister Taki is reported to have said that Mr. Suraj’s family had been informed about these investigation results, while in fact they did not know at all about the investigation, its results and today’s conference. We have first heard about the conference when our organization was contacted by the press today after it had taken place. Later, several press companies contacted Mr. Suraj’s wife asking for comments, but she was confused by the situation first hearing about the content of the conference from the press.
These measures to investigate and report only on the government’s terms and to later say that they have fulfilled they responsibility to be accountable are nothing but insincere. I think that this situation in which the family is left behind clearly shows this country’s current level of human right awareness.

Monday, November 26, 2012

7th Hearing Held in Mr. Suraj’s Trial for State Compensation

November 19th (Mon) was the 7th court date in Mr. Suraj’s case.
This time, the plaintiff side made a proceeding report describing that a request was made for enclosure to crime victims which actually took place on October 12th, and that another request has been submitted to the prosecutor office for viewing of the video taken during the deportation process.
It was agreed upon that the plaintiff side lets the defendant side to have a look at the acquired information, and the defendant side will make an official statement by next time.
This time, the observer seats were not full. It is feared that as the trial is prolonged, this way the case may gather less interest. The next court hearing is on next year’s February 25th (Mon) from 4PM in Court Room No. 705. We hope that you will support us as an observer and may even invite other people around you who are interested.