22nd February 2005 -The painfully slow wheels of the Japanese justice system creaked into motion for another 90 short minutes today as Nick Baker's drug appeal continued at the Tokyo High Court.

A pale and tired Nick, whose continuing health problems have been exacerbated due to his detainment conditions, acknowledged the approximately 15 members of the public gallery as he was led into the courtroom accompanied by 3 guards. Security was tight with a further guard posted at the rear of the gallery.

Baker's defense council has commissioned an independent report about the Chiba District Court and police interpretation from Prof. Makiko Mizuno, a linguists experts at Osaka's Senrikinkan University.

Professor Mizuno had access to the original Chiba District Court trial tapes and Baker's English language statements were transcribed by a native of Baker's home county of Gloucestershire.

The report focuses on three main areas:

1) It is clear that Baker's strong accent and sentence structure is exceptionally difficult to understand even for a trained interpreter;
2) The original Chiba district court trials were plagued by many interpretation errors and omissions - in some cases prejudicing Baker's statements and
3) Prof. Mizuno's summary and recommendations.

Prof. Mizuno further contends that whilst the Chiba court and police interpreters may have had reasonable on-paper results in general English examinations, they were not sufficiently equipped to act as legal interpreters.

We reproduce here just one court exchange that may have prejudiced the judge and prosecution: (text in red is translated by us from the original Japanese)

Question (put to Baker by Prosecution):-

"You are saying that your dissatisfaction with the previous interpretation was a dissatisfaction with the contents of that interpretation, but you're saying that you don't mind if the interpreters change one after the other."

Court Interpreter to Baker:-

"Last time, yes, last time you said that it was a problem, uh, it was, it was a problem if the translator was not, uh, was not, was mis-communicate...the miscommunication of the translator is a problem and you said to that the customer and you said you stated at this trial previously I understand that however, about changing the translator, uh interpreter, you said at this trial that you never claimed this issue to the customs officer."

Baker to Court Interpreter:-

"I'm not understanding what you're asking me to be honest, I'm...I'm not understanding totally what you're asking me."

Court Interpreter to court:-

"(He) doesn't understand what the prosecuter is asking."

Prosecution (angrily) to Baker:-

"That's the way you responded last time!"

Court Interpreter to Baker:-

"Last time you stated so! Last time you responded so!

Baker to court:-

"I'm not understanding that question you just asked me. I'm sorry."

Judge to Baker:-

"It's not that you don't just understand the question, is it? The prosecutor is asking a very straightforward question."

Court Translator to Baker:-

"I think the prosecutor is asking you a simple question."

Baker to court:-

"Can you repeat it then please."

Prof. Makiko Mizuno has acted as an interpreter more than 40 times at both Osaka and Kyoto courthouses. She majored was "Interpretation in Japanese Criminal Cases" and she is author of the book, considered the bible of court interpretation by many in legal interpreting circles, entitled "Court Interpretation". She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Human Sociology Department of Osaka's Senrikinkan University.

The painfully slow wheels of the Japanese justice system creaked into motion for another 90 short minutes today as Nick Baker's drug appeal continued at the Tokyo High Court.

A pale and tired Nick, whose continuing health problems have been exacerbated due to his detainment conditions, acknowledged the approximately 15 members of the public gallery as he was led into the courtroom accompanied by 3 guards. Security was tight with a further guard posted at the rear of the gallery.

Court rose promptly at 10:30 with the entry of the 3 Judges and presiding Judge Tao introducing the day's schedule. Defense council Miyake, presented graphic blown-up photographs of the suitcase used in the smuggling attempt and also a sealed envelope, he immediately requested the new evidence be entered into evidence. He further submitted an independent report commissioned by the defense, relating to the quality and substance of the interpretation at Nick's Chiba District Court trial. Judge Tao accepted the photographs into evidence and also the envelope, which was later opened, revealing three asthma inhalers. Judge Tao however declined to accept the report as evidence per se, but retained a copy for later perusal.

Nick took the stand after 10 minutes and defense council's questioning revolved around the number and location of the inhalers at the time of his arrest; the items shown in the photographs and the physical location of what appeared to be the key to the suitcase. Further examination centered on disputed prosecution documents relating to the question of when they were signed.

Second defense council Honda then examined Nick, confirming questions relating to Nick's traveling companion; the trip to Europe; check-in procedures and Nick's state of mind at that time.

With only 10 minutes remaining of the allotted court time, Judge Toa, aware of Nick's back pain, asked if he were able to continue. He then himself questioned the defendant:

"What did the defendant buy in Amsterdam?"; "What did Nick's traveling companion buy?"; "Did Nick pay for flight tickets himself?". Judge Tao had remained engaged throughout the trial, listening carefully to evidence and asking questions.

This line of questioning continued until a little after 12:00 noon, when Tao brought the proceedings to close. The next session was set for April 19th at 14:30.

Miyake commented after the hearing that he was satisfied with the outcome of the day's events and that the reasoning behind establishing the apparent location of the suitcase key was to discredit the witness testimony of the customs officer at the Chiba trials.

Nick now has another 2 months in the Tokyo Detention Center to dwell on the progress of his appeal before the next hearing. The drawn-out nature of the appeals process is not only taking it's toll on Nick - one of his keepers was moved to drop-off several times beside his charge.