12th court hearing Held in Mr. Suraj’s Trial

 The 12^th court hearing of the state compensation trial was opened on October 23^rd (Wed) from 10 am. In the morning, a specialist MD was invited to testify about the heart disease (cystic tumor of the atrioventricular node; referred to as CTAVN below) claimed to be Mr. Suraj’s cause of death. From the afternoon, the examination of the doctor who identified Mr. Suraj’s cause of death, and later on that of the plaintiff, namely of Mr. Suraj’s wife were held.

 The focus this time was on the testimony by Dr. Ikeda who identified Mr. Suraj’s previously unknown cause of death as CTAVN in a second autopsy report two years later; that is, as a disease Mr. Suraj was supposed to have already been suffering from.

Dr. Ikeda claimed right from the beginning that CTAVN is 100% sure to be the cause of death. He said that to come to a conclusion of death by suffocation, one necessary premise would be to clearly exclude other possible causes of death; so since now another cause of death (CTAVN) can be found, it cannot be death by suffocation. However, when he was asked how he could conclude that merely having CTAVN = (equals) CTAVN as the cause of death while there are reported cases where people lived for some 90 years with CTAVN, he only said “that is because he is dead”; an answer that completely lacked convincing content even for us medical laymen.

Also, he even made rude statements such as “he had CTAVN so there is no need to consider other causes of death” or “the fact that he died then and there was a matter of his life expectancy”, thus inviting harsh criticism from the observer seats.

Based on such statements of Dr. Ikeda, further suspicion concerning Mr. Suraj’s cause of death was strengthened and shared by the observers.

Later, in her testimony, Mr. Suraj’s wife managed to deliver the most important messages she wanted to communicate to the chief judge, such as “(based on the content of the previous testimonies by the immigration officers) I feel that my husband was not handled as a human being” and “I hope that I am the last one who has to withstand such hardship”.

After the trial in a meeting, the legal team reported that they managed to get the statements they were expecting from these testimonies. Also, those who were present confirmed their determination to each other to carry on fighting with the closing argument in sight.

The next hearing will be the closing arguments on February 3^rd (Mon) 2014 from 3 pm in Court Room No. 705 (venue may be open to change).

Please invite people around you and come as observers to support us at the final hearing.

 (Photo: the legal team at the meeting)