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.

 

 

The Trial of Mr. Suraj continues !

After the release of the non-prosecution decision by the Chiba’s Public Prosecutor Office, many people seem to think that the trial for Mr. Suraj is over.

Even if in the criminal case a decision of non-prosecution has been released (there is still the possibility of forcing the prosecution through the Inquest for Prosecution Committee), the civil case (the trial claiming for compensation from the State) still continues. The next hearing will take place on the 1^st of October from 3:30PM in the court room 705. Even only to protest against this unfair decision of non-prosecution, we would like you to gather at the audience. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Protest Action against the decision of Non-prosecution in the case of M. Suraj

On the 3^rd of this month, we put on this blog that the 10 immigration officers who participated in the forced deportation of Mr. Suraj were not going to be prosecuted.

We made a one day action to protest against this unfair decision of non-prosecution.

From 11:30AM, the fifth hearing in the trial claiming for compensation from the State occurred in the court room 705, and the room was again full with people supporting the case. Since the decision of non-prosecution of the criminal case has been issued in between the last hearing and today’s one, the recordings that were up until now in the hand of the Chiba’ district Public Prosecutor Office’s hands were released and are going to be inspected from now on.

From 12:00, we moved to the Lawyers Association building, where the Attorneys explained the decision of non-prosecution (that the death of Mr. Suraj was caused by a heart tumor). Then, as the perspective from now on, they plan to review in details the expert’s report, and eventually to get a point of view from the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution.

From 3:00PM, we moved to the Chiba’s Prosecutor Office to make a protest action. We handed out the Protest Letter we put on this blog before, but the person in charge of the case was said to be absent, so Mr. Suraj’s widow transmitted the sheet directly. We cannot help but to feel that the decision of non-prosecution with “no suspicion”, which is a fairly rare decision, reflects that the Chiba’s district Prosecutor Office is just protecting its peers. We believe it is necessary to firmly oppose resistance to this unfair judgment.

To everybody who participated in the action despite the extreme heat, thank you very much. Thank you also to everybody who went to assist to the hearing! The next hearing will take place on Monday, the 1^st of October, from 3PM in the court room 705. Everyone’s continued presence has a great influence on the judge, thank you very much for your cooperation.