
Please send your signatures, both paper and electronic, so that they arrive at the APFS office by Tuesday, April 15th.
(Please refer to the signature form below for the recipient's address.)
We know this is a short-term request, but we would appreciate your cooperation.
On March 22, 2010, Abubakar Awudu Suraj (hereinafter referred to as Suraj), a Ghanaian national, died while being deported at government expense. In December of the same year, ten immigration officers who accompanied him during the deportation were referred to prosecutors on suspicion of aggravated assault and abuse resulting in death by a public official.
On July 3, 2012, two years and four months after the incident, the Chiba District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to indict the ten officials due to insufficient evidence. The decision was made that Suraj's death was caused by a pre-existing heart condition and that there was no causal relationship between it and the restraint used by immigration officers during his deportation (excessive restraint using unauthorized restraints).
Despite the initial uncertainty regarding the cause of death, we have serious doubts about the discovery of Suraj's heart condition, which the prosecution attributed to the incident more than two years later. Even if he did have a heart condition, it is highly unlikely that it developed completely unrelated to the restraint. The fact that immigration officers themselves stopped videotaping the deportation process suggests that the restraint was so excessive and brutal that it could not be recorded.
Following the district court ruling in the national compensation lawsuit, which recognized the illegality of the immigration officer's restraint and its causal link to Ms. Suraj's death, we will finally file a request with the Public Prosecutors' Review Board, which had been pending until now, and request the compulsory prosecution of the immigration officer who accompanied her. The date has not yet been finalized, but we will file the request by the end of this month at the latest.
Along with filing the petition, we will also submit the signatures to the Public Prosecutors' Review Board, as we have requested previously. We have collected over 1,300 signatures so far, but we would like to increase that number. We ask for your cooperation in collecting signatures once again.
It is clear that the actions of the immigration officer warrant prosecution. I am convinced that the decision not to prosecute was due to leniency and distortion of the facts by the prosecution, who were essentially their own people. Suraj's family is also demanding severe punishment. We ask for your signatures to help us request the Prosecution Review Board to carefully review this case and decide to order a mandatory prosecution.
★You can download the signature form from the link below.
(Japanese)
(English)
★We are also using electronic signatures (change.org). Please spread the word to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Change.org petition site
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