The Japanese human-rights advocate Makoto Endo once said, "The Japanese criminal trial is a puppet show put on by the prosecution. It is scripted by the prosecution, the puppets are the prosecutors themselves and the judges. The defendant and defense lawyer are bystanders in what is already a forgone conclusion".The Japanese courts' 99.97% conviction rate seems proof that the accused has practically zero chance of acquittal when led into a Japanese courtroom.
If the Japanese courtroom really is a place of marionettes, incredibly, Tokyo High Court officials now believe they can stretch the puppet strings all the way to the small English town of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, some 30 miles North-East of Bristol.
Malmesbury is home to Iris Baker, 55, whose son, Nick, was arrested at Tokyo's Narita Airport in April 2002 when MDMA and cocaine were found in the false bottom of a suitcase. Nick was later convicted and sentanced to 14 years imprisonment at labour and a 5 million Yen (£27,000) fine at Chiba District Court in June 2003.
On March 23rd 2004, some nine months after his conviction, Nick appeared before the Tokyo High Court for the first hearing of his appeal. Soon afterward, his supporters posted the following account of the hearing on their website: (excerpted)
"A young female [court] translator was mostly inaudible. At times Nick craned his neck and pressed forward over the desk, hand cupped round his ear, in an attempt to hear better. But the translator could not see Nick, as she was hunchbacked throughout her recital, her head buried in the text. From the public gallery, not a square inch of her face was visible as she mumbled into her desk. For some 45 minutes, the translator read through the defense argument, completing 14 of the 33 pages before Judge Tao instructed her to stop as time had run out.
At the end of the session, two of Nick's supporters surveyed people exiting the courtroom, asking if they had clearly heard the translator. Nobody had."
This is where the story gets interesting. Nick's family and supporters had been aware for some time that the Japanese Ministry of Justice was closely monitoring their support website. As an example, the following screen provided by the website's tracking software records five Ministry of Justice visits in a one month period between April 19, 2004 - May 19, 2004 ("moj.go.jp" where 'moj' is Ministry of Justice, 'go' is 'government, and 'jp' is Japan):
The support network says this surveillance had been ongoing since shortly after the site was put up in the summer of 2003 - in fact, one supporter claimed that the MOJ seem to have spent more time monitoring the site than Nick has had court-time. However, Iris Baker never dreamed the Ministry would use their leverage (holding Nick captive with a 14 year sentence hanging over his head) in an attempt to censor the site. But, soon after the report critical of the translator appeared, the website received a demand from High Court officials via Nick's legal team, who sent the following e-mail message to the Justice for Nick Baker Website: (excerpt)
"Today we received a claim from High Court that your web site is too aggressive to court translator? If you can revise your opinion regarding court translator on web site, we sincerely appreciate it. We believe it is too dangerous to make High Court angry."
Nick's family and supporters did not want to compromise anyone's position, but they decided not to cave in to the court's demand for the removal of what they considered an accurate account of the first hearing. The report remained on the website, in defiance of the court's demand.
Then, on May 6th, just two working days before Nick's second appeal hearing, the Tokyo High Court suddenly contacted Mr Miyake and told him that the translator had "resigned," there was no replacement (Note that Nick is not permitted to hire his own translator), and the hearing was cancelled.
After two weeks of anxiously awaiting news, Nick was finally informed that the second hearing of his appeal would be rescheduled for June 17. This further delay meant that after waiting almost one year for the courts to schedule his first appeal hearing (which lasted one hour), Nick has had to wait almost three months for his second hearing. This is especially troubling considering that Japanese courts do not give full credit for time served in detention while awaiting or undergoing trial.
In an E-mail interview Iris Baker commented:
"The supporter's website is maintained by myself and a network of volunteers. It is neither registered nor hosted in Japan, and the following disclaimer appears (in both English and Japanese) on each page:
"This site was created by Nick's family and supporters. It is not edited or controlled in any way by Nick's legal advisors or by Nick himself."
The Tokyo High Court has no business whatsoever contacting Nick or his legal advisors regarding anything that is said on the site and for the court to do so is nothing more than a wholly inappropriate attempt at censorship - shameful and cowardly given the dynamic of the relationship between a prisoner and his keepers. This pressure treads on the guarantee of free speech enshrined in the Japanese Constitution. I will not take down the website, I will continue to fight for a fair trial for my son and will not bow to intimidation of this nature."
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