We are still collecting signatures for Mr. Suraj !

  The final day for collecting signatures was today but after discussing with the lawyers we decided to extend it a little bit (to the middle of November probably).

 We have 955 signs right now but we are looking for more than 1000. Thanks for your cooperation !

 You can download the petition sheet on APFS website: http://apfs.jp/ Please send it by Fax or by post mail.

Mini Concert for the support of Mr. Suraj

 
 On the 27th of October, a concert was organized to raise money for Mr. Suraj in Kiss Café, in Nishi-Ogikubo. Theo, a French man who is volunteering at APFS, played the guitar along with a Japanese woman singing standards from Europe and America, along with popular Japanese songs. Half of the music charge for the support of Mr. Suraj.


Below is the report by Theo.

Support Concert for Mr. Suraj at Kiss Cafe, Nishi-ogikubo  on the 27th of October.

 On the 27th of October, APFS, Mr. Suraj's wife, friends and supporters gathered for a support concert event at the Kiss Cafe, in Nishi-Ogikubo, Tokyo.
Half of the entrance fee of 1,000 Yens was to be given to Mr. Suraj's wife to help her with the various expenses going along with her fight for the unveiling of the truth in the accident that led to her husband's death and for the prosecution of the Immigration Officers that were part of the deportation.

Reimi and I played music for about two hours, and the cafe, decorated by the numerous paintings of Abubakar Suraj, was completely full, showing once again the solid support behind this fight.

Several dozens of signatures were gathered for the forced prosecution of the officers, which is always a great help.

Thanks to all of you who participated, we hope to do it again in the near future.

 

Explanation of the contents of the 6th hearing of the trial for Mr. Suraj by the Attorneys

 
 Last time, other than the evidence that the judges obtained from the Chiba district public prosecutors office, we too were asking the prosecutors office for disclosure of documents concerning the case.
When we tried to obtain a copy of the documents, the prosecutors stated that "the documents are the same as those we submitted to the court". In response, we pointed out that a directive from the Ministry of Justice states that family of victims of crime should be shown a wider range of documents. The prosecutors realized their mistake and stated they will reconsider whether they will disclose the documents or not. The prosecutors then covered parts of the document that have to do with one's privacy and finally the documents did not make it on time for the hearing. We should be able to acquire the documents during next week. We will then consider what evidence we will turn in to the court and what we will claim. Yesterday's trial was not very productive but maybe because there were many observers in the court, the presiding judge was very polite and comprehensive towards us, to a point that we were surprised. At the last trial, a written expert opinion that stated that Mr. Suraj's death was caused by illness was submitted to the court, but we were relieved by the Judge's comment: "the court read it too, but it doesn't seem to take into account what the Immigration bureau officers did". The judges did not seem to see the written expert opinion as that important.

I expect that the next trial will be more meaningful than yesterday's trial.

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The next hearing will be held on Monday, 19th of November, at 4:00PM in the court room 705. Please come and join us as an observer to the court, it is very important.

Today’s petition action for M. Suraj

 Today, we gathered signatures for the petition that we plan to hand out to the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, aiming at a forced prosecution. We first planned to do it in Ikebukuro, but because an event was already happening, we had to move to Takadanobaba, where we had the last petition action. 8 persons, including Suraj’s wife, friends and supporters stood up in front of the station for 2 hours, and we could gather 58 signatures.

Including today’s signatures, we are now at a total of 600 persons. We want to have at least 1000 signatures by the end of October. Please talk to people around you, ask them to sign the petition. You can send us the signatures by fax or post mail.

(Please sign the petition too. You can download the petition sheet from Apfs website : http://apfs.jp/event20120927_1885.php)

6th Hearing in the trial aiming at State compensation for the Mr. Suraj's incident

Today was held the 6^th Hearing in the trial aiming at State compensation in the incident of Mr. Suraj's death. Following the decision of non-prosecution of early July of this year, we asked for the disclosure of the documents that were the reason of the non-prosecution, but since the documents are not to be disclosed until next week, no significant progress has been made today.

According to the content of the documents, the trial aiming at State Compensation could be considerably modified. The next hearing will be held on Monday, 19^th of November, at 4:00PM. Please come and join us as an observer to the court, it is very important.

（Picture） Before the hearing, we asked for signature for the petition claiming for the forced prosecution to the committee for the inquest of prosecution.

Please sign the petition too. You can download the petition sheet from Apfs website : http://apfs.jp/event20120927_1885.php

Suraj’s incident: Petition action for a forced prosecution

As everybody knows, we work hard at APFS to pressure for the forced prosecution of the 10 Immigration Officers who participated to the deportation attempt of M. Suraj (a decision of non-prosecution was released on the 3^rd of July this year). This is why we are planning to present the signatures to the petition to the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution.

Yesterday, we hold a petition action in front of Takadanobaba station. Suraj’s wife, friends, and supporters, around 10 people in total gathered to ask for signatures. Despite the extreme heat, many people kindly stopped to hear about M. Suraj, and we were able to gather about 100 signatures in an hour and a half.

To the persons wanting to support the action, you can directly download the petition from the internet (Japanese and English versions available): http://apfs.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/120820-suraj-petition-English.pdf Thank you for your support.

Photographs illustrating Mr. Suraj’s deportation

Among the documents that were made open by the Ministry of Justice after the team of attorneys engaged in Mr. Suraj’s case made an appeal for the preservation of evidence, there was a set of photographs taken by the Immigration Bureau to reconstruct the circumstances of the case.

The person in the white shirt acts as Mr. Suraj. The reenactment took place in the office space of the Deportation Department at the Tokyo Immigration Bureau.

 

↑ Illustrating how they boarded the plane while he was carried by immigration employees in a position facing down

 

↑ Illustrating how his mouth was covered with a towel when he was seated and how his body was held down by several officers

 

It is clear that he was forced into a stressful position. It is the first time that we look at the deportation scene this way, but we can see that he was treated in a very violent manner. Imagining Mr. Suraj’s death under such treatment, one cannot help but feel enraged.