Decision not to indict over Sri Lanka detainee's death unjust: panel

The prosecutors' previous interrogations of related parties in terms of the possibility of negligence were "insufficient," the panel said.

For country that based on hostage justice system, where forced confession is enough to indict people, is really strange when somehow people who directly to death case not being prosecuted just by saying "insufficient".

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E8%B3%AA%E5%8F%B8%E6%B3%95

It's fanciful to imagine that any part of the injustice system, from prosecutors and judges to jailers and police, will ever be punished very severely. In a country in which "safety and security" are essentially the ideological goals these are its enforcers.

The prosecutors' previous interrogations of related parties in terms of the possibility of negligence were "insufficient," the panel said.

she slide into a health state that resulted in her death while in the care of a government department. So death is “insufficient”? Hate to see what “sufficient” looks like.

As for the allegation of murder and abandonment resulting in death, however, the committee determined that the officials did not willfully kill Wishma or purposely fail to protect the victim.

Yes they did she was under their control, they killed her. Or do they not have any control over detainees held in detention centres?

Wishma arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student but was taken into custody at the immigration facility in August 2020 for overstaying her visa after an earlier application for refugee status had been rejected.

If the asylum was rejected, there was no reason to continue staying in Japan, something very unfortunate that should be investigated, but that would have been avoided if she had complied with Japan's immigration rules..

Japan is not for everyone..

@Moonraker

"Safety and security" only for certain people. If you're poor or foreign, you have to suck it up.

This decision might be a move in the right direction. However, a) it shouldn't take this much effort and b) if there are no fundamental changes to the inhumane detention system, such deaths will keep happening, as they have until now.

Well, of course, Yotomaya, that's what ideology is: keeping the lower orders down by always spinning them a yarn to keep them satisfied, while the elites and their enablers (jailers, judges, prosecutors and police) carry on their merry way.

Japanese immigration detention centers are part of the untouchables.

There is an unmistakable pattern of conduct that reveals the universal law of "Statecraft 101" as practiced everywhere in the world and at all times: a government's cover to protect its servants and "guard dogs, to " limit liability and avoid all accountability. Thus the principles of "Justice", or "Serving the People" are of no account at all to those players who wield power.

"Prosecutors should decide to bring charges this time around" after the panel raised doubts about their earlier investigation, Chie Komai, a lawyer representing Wishma's family, told a press conference in Tokyo,

A significant move, but it's just the beginning. The prosecutors could insist on their earlier decision (not to press charge) after review requested by the panel. That being the case, the panel is again convened for deliberation. Suppose the second panel concludes that the charge is necessary, the prosecutors must bring the case to the court for a trial.

The panel is like a grand jury consisting of lay persons randomly called upon by the court.

There is something very wrong here.

She was taken into custody in August 2020 and died, still in detention in March 2021. Why? If she had overstayed her visa, she should have been repatriated. Why detain her for all this time?

Was she in solitary confinement? Was she told when she would be released?

If so, this is a kind of torture.

This system really needs to be looked into.

@Zoroto

What is it with your obsession with Singapore? In some countries, she'd be thrown into jail for living with a partner while unmarried. What's your point? This article is about the immigration center of Japan and a person dying under inhumane circumstances.

If the asylum was rejected, there was no reason to continue staying in Japan

Exactly! She tried to game the system and she lost.

It's a cover up, and over two weeks detention I guess that multiple people know what happened inside. Time to tun the bright lights of the justice system onto the folks in Nagoya.

Japanese immigration detention centers are part of the untouchables.

Hopefully not any more. I suspect that the panel reached this decision only because this incident is now viral and getting big international attention.

getting big international attention.

No one in the west cares about it.

Milking the system is not a good idea.

getting big international attention.

No one in the west cares about it.

International means North, East, West, South (hence NEWS).

Why talk about other countries, the story is about the crudity of detention in Japan! If Japan has laws that allow the open ended detaining rather than repatriation again that’s Japans fault. The yearly death toll of detainees is systematic. It’s on Japan and only Japan to fix this. I’m sure that the last words of a dying detainees wasn’t “wish I’d gone to Singapore”

Japan needs to have independent civil Jury in courts for some cases when government officials and or employees are on trial or the accused.

Independent Judicial Panels often find for the plaintiff, but then when the government or authorities file their inevitable appeal to the Supreme Court, the judges side with the establishment.

SOP.

Immigration detention centers are different from jail/prison in 2 points:

・there is no clear pre-defined release date. If the detainee wishes to remain in Japan nobody knows if he will be released within 3 months or after a couple of years. Battle in court can last for 4, 5 years.

・provisional release is granted for humanitarian reasons, including when the visa seeking detainee is sick and need regular medical care

Combine these 2 and you have detainees faking some sort of illness literally every single month.

Some simply stop eating to look weaker. Some write multiple 願箋 (requests) to go see a doctor just to get a ride and breathe the air outside. "Sorry doctor, I just wanted to go out for a bit". Imagine everyone's faces.

This is no joke. Anyone who says otherwise has never set foot on a japanese immigration center.

@Finally Rich

There's a lot to unpack there.

The first half is correct. However, the second resorts to the usual, "It's the detainees fault" narrative. Yes, they can "fake" a disease to be released, but there is medical staff who can ascertain what their issues is (in my anecdotal experience, the doctors there tend to be less than helpful to the detainees). And many of them don't fake their conditions. Hunger strikes have often been used as a way to protest inhumane treatment of people often detained for years. It's literally the only way for these people's voices to be heard, and even then they keep getting blamed for their misfortune.

This year, there was an article about a detainee who took his own life. His story made the news only because his attempt led to death. Many don't leading to even closer scrutiny within the detention center. If provisional release was given based on "humanitarian" grounds, the usual response to a suicide attempt (which are shockingly common) wouldn't be to dog the detainee around everywhere, including showers and toilets, but to release them and/or offer help. The same goes for other issues that the detention center couldn't care less about. Requests to see doctors outside the facility are rarely granted and the person gets promptly detained again even if they do have a medical condition. What's more, provisional releases don't usually come with a work permit, meaning their lives remain in limbo, in some cases for decades.

In a way, the only way they may think they've "messed up" this time is that it lead to the detainee's death. Otherwise, neglect, bullying and torture are treated as standard procedure.

Calling people who had years of their lives stolen like this fakers and "playing the system" is disingenuous and cruel.

Decision not to indict over Sri Lanka detainee's death unjust

Absolutely. I don't know anyone who thought this was justified. Someone should be getting the chop for this. Someone.

My job checking on detainees, she doesn’t look so good, oh well she is a detainee so not my problem I’m going to walk a little bit more then have lunch. Although I’m a guard and told to keep a close eye on detainees nobody told me to care about their health. I’m not paid to care about health issues.just make their lives as uncomfortable as possible. It’s Japan style. That’s all.

"As for the allegation of murder and abandonment resulting in death, however, the committee determined that the officials did not willfully kill Wishma or purposely fail to protect the victim."

Good old Japanese justice. Wasn't premeditated murder, and the extreme negligence that resulted in her death was an accident -- they weren't paying attention as the people taking care of her, so how is it their fault? They should be set free and the victim to blame. Now, why are our rankings on human rights abuses so poor again?!?

Exactly! She tried to game the system and she lost.

That sentence would be very true in a totalitarian regime.

If the detainee in question had had white skin it wouldn't have happened. Japans institutions are inherently racist.

A lot of comments saying why was she here? She should've just been sent home. Like a person's life is that simple. Hopefully this from Wikipedia can explain to you why she was still here:

In August 2020, Wishma went to a police station in Shimizu, Shizuoka, to seek shelter from her boyfriend's domestic violence, only to be sent to a detention facility run by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau.[2][14] This was despite a 2008 directive from Japan's Immigration Bureau (later Immigration Services Agency) to its facilities to treat domestic violence victims with appropriate care and possibly grant them residency.[14]

Wishma stated that she wanted to return to Sri Lanka, but she was put on a waiting list as she could not afford a flight home as commercial flights were unavailable due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11] After receiving threats from her ex and being offered potential accommodation from a supporter, she decided to ask to stay in Japan, and applied for provisional release on January 4, 2021,[15] which was rejected on February 16

There seems to be a lot of hate during this Christmas and New Years Holiday Season. She is dead people. For no reason other than she was an international person without someone to care for her.

Oh my god it just gets worse and worse, don’t go to the police as being a complaining foreigner is cause enough for arrest and detention. which can and does lead to abuse or death. The pro Japanese apologists can claim the victim asked for it but she went to the police for help, how did that work out?

@Zoroto

A person with white skin (or at least a passport that suggests it) would be granted a visa much more easily and, even if they overstayed, they wouldn't be detained. I wonder what makes you (and, obviously, others here) think that a person with a fairer complexion is less likely to cause trouble.

When I worked directly at immigration detention centers (5-6 years) there was virtually 0 white people at any given block. Guess in all these years I saw 1 american and 1 german-brazilian, not the kind of people you'd invite for dinner with your family though.

But again, white people dont make up much of the prison/immi centers population at any country, including their own home countries.

Was there ever any doubt ? Everyone knew nothing would happen to the people responsible

In most cases a ‘foreign problem is way too far down the line to worry about for the authorizes here and being from a poorer country, well…your fate is sealed!

If the detainee in question had had white skin it wouldn't have happened. Japans institutions are inherently racist.

I don't think that is comment is completely true. Yes, Japans institutions are inherently racist, but that applies to all non-Japanese, regardless of skin colour. On a visit to the Immigration office in 1987, I witnessed (and experienced) several (two in particular) immigration officers being as nasty as possible to just about everybody applying for visa extension.

Japanese culture likes to distribute the guilt to many people, so no one will be directly blamed, and all parties involved can walk away with their hands clean.

I don't think that is comment is completely true. Yes, Japans institutions are inherently racist, but that applies to all non-Japanese, regardless of skin colour. On a visit to the Immigration office in 1987, I witnessed (and experienced) several (two in particular) immigration officers being as nasty as possible to just about everybody applying for visa extension.

@Alan Harrison........So, Japan is not racist. Culturally, they are just prejudiced to all non Japanese.

Is that your point?

@Alan Harrison........So, Japan is not racist. Culturally, they are just prejudiced to all non Japanese.

Is that your point?

My experience at Otamachi that day indicated utter hostility ,and obstruction to all non- Japanese, (everybody applying for visas) and did not seem to distinguish a specific of skin colour.

I'm not sure that it was cultural. The officers seemed to be shouting rehearsed English phases. Interestingly enough, when I (and others) replied to anything in Japanese, it seemed to completely confuse, baffle, and outrage them.

Interestingly enough, when I (and others) replied to anything in Japanese, it seemed to completely confuse, baffle, and outrage them.

Weird, in my experience, being able to speak Japanese well made all the difference in Immigration, always helped things move smoother and faster.

Are you sure you speak Japanese as well as you think you do?

@Strangerland. Well, 1987 was fairly early days for me, (my kanji level had reached about 500) and these days, like you say, it is bonus to speak Japanese. Strangely enough, 5 years later, I was speaking to an immigration officer about what happened and she sighed. She said to me that many of those officers from that tome had been replaced.

Usually, immigration in Japan has officers speaking enough English to get the job done.

Several decades ago I (as I recall)would notice gnarly attitudes much more often than now and the atmosphere within the offices was reminiscent of an abattoir.

It seems Nagoya is the last one out of the traps…