in Japan, criminal justice is struggling to reform

LETTER FROM TOKYO Iwao Hakamada leaves his apartment in Hamamatsu (Japan), October 17, 2024. EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP The acquittal, on September 26 by the Shizuoka court, of Iwao Hakamada, who spent nearly forty-six years in the corridors of death, shed a harsh light on the shortcomings and dysfunctions of Japanese criminal justice. This judicial error of unparalleled magnitude due to its spread over time is in fact only the submerged part of an iceberg: the often abusive treatment of suspects placed in police custody in police stations. Many suspects of crimes less serious than the murder of four people – with which Iwao Hakamada was accused – are treated by the police and prosecutors in the same way as the latter during his custody. Mr. Hakamada was interrogated for 264 hours over twenty-three days, until he finally broke down and “confessed” to the murders he did not commit. At his first trial, no account was taken of his retractions or of the violence of which he said he had been a victim. “Confessions”, even if forced, are considered probative evidence. According to an investigation by the Jiji news agency, three-quarters of those charged with murder and acquitted at an appeal trial had confessed under duress during interrogations. This was the case of four condemned to death. According to Toshikuni Murai, a jurist specializing in criminal law at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, cited by Jiji, “first instance courts judge on the basis of confessions” obtained during interrogations. “Torn lives, broken families” In a report, “The hostage justice system in Japan”, published in May 2023, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch highlights the deficiencies in the treatment of suspects placed in custody. view: deprived of the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to silence and the presence of a lawyer, they are relentlessly subjected to interrogations. Under constant surveillance, suspects are often deprived of any contact with their family members or their employer. Read also (2023): Article reserved for our subscribers In Japan, the relentlessness of prosecutors against a man who spent forty-six years on death row Add to your selections The period of police custody in Japan is in principle limited to twenty-three days (twenty-four hours in France, time possibly extended to 144 hours maximum). Often citing other minor offenses, investigators generally obtain an extension of police custody from the prosecutor. “The government must urgently undertake a reform of the criminal procedure code in order to guarantee detainees the right to a fair trial and make investigators and prosecutors more accountable,” Human Rights Watch said in its report. According to Ms. Kanae Doi, its director for Japan, “these abusive practices have torn lives apart, broken up families and led to unjustified convictions.” They can have dramatic consequences when they lead to life imprisonment or the death penalty. You have 48.24% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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