Dear Supporters,
Thank you for your
continued concern with regard to the incident of Abubakar Awudu Suraj.
On November 9th the High Court, under judge
Hiroyuki Kanno, rejected the appeal of Suraj’s mother against the overturning
of the ruling of Tokyo District Court by the Tokyo High Court.
It has been more
than 6 years since my husband died. The trial has made me face the reality of
his death and on numerous occasions I have felt close to losing my strength to
carry on.
But despite this I
was able to receive courage to carry on from all of those who came to give
their support by observing the court case and the sharing of your kind words. I
would not have been able to have continued upon this long path without you and
am deeply grateful to you all.
While my husband
can not be brought back to us, in order to prevent his death from being in
vain, I have taken this route in order to stop such death from happening once again.
Despite your kind support we have not achieved the desired result and this is
sorely disappointing.
We have fought
together for justice, but at the decision of the supreme court it has been
judged that a re-trial is not necessary to deal with the significant issues
left behind by this case. This has left me in much pain and uncertainty.
Even though the
result is bitter we have through the process identified many details of the
incident, the video tape of Suraj's forced return has been screened in court
and we have been able to see the 6 immigration officers, and this has been most
important to me and his relatives. Due to all of your support we were able to
ascertain the relation between the immigration officers’ forceful handling of
my husband and his death, and the fact that we won in the district court has
allowed us to make some small impression upon the Ministry of Justice and the
Immigration Bureau.
In order to
prevent such sacrifice of life in the future I believe that those responsible
for this incident, the Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Bureau must
never forget my husband’s death. This wound will never heal for the rest of my
life, but I hope to continue work towards Suraj’s hope, as expressed in his
words “I want to help everyone”, and in aid of this I would be grateful if you
would continue to speak of this incident for long into the future.
I am truly
grateful for all of your warm support over this long period. I thank you from
my heart. And I hope you continue to recall Abubakar Awudu Suraj for a moment now and then.
Please take good care of yourselves.
Yours sincerely
Suraj’s Widow
