[Suraju Case] Report on Dr. Katsumata's testimony (September 14th)

We have received the following report from Attorney Sosuke Seki of the Suraj Law Team, and would like to publish it here.

Attorney Sosuke Seki, Suraj Lawyers

On September 14, 2015, from 1:30 pm, questioning of Yoshinao Katsumata, a forensic pathologist and professor emeritus at Nagoya University, took place. This questioning was scheduled for April 8 this year, but was delayed due to Katsumata's inability to make time for it, and it was finally held now.

As it was difficult for Professor Katsumata to travel to Tokyo (to appear at the Tokyo High Court), a visiting interrogation was conducted, and the witness interrogation was conducted behind closed doors in a courtroom at the Nagoya High Court.

Due to these circumstances, unfortunately, supporters were not able to attend the hearing of Mr. Katsumata's testimony, so I will give a brief report on the situation. (If you have any questions, please submit them at the next report meeting, etc.)

Appearing in court that day were Dr. Katsumata, one judge (seated to the left of the commissioned judge), the clerk, the bailiff, Mr. Suraj's wife, and the four lawyers, Kodama, Abiko, Nohara, and Seki, from our side, and an astounding 11-12 people from the government's side who had come from Tokyo in a large group that disregarded cost.

As mentioned above, although the decision to hold the hearing had already been made five months ago, the government suddenly submitted Professor Katsumata's supplementary statement (which was nine pages long) on September 7, the week before the hearing. At the beginning of the hearing, Attorney Kodama asked the government for an explanation as to why they had submitted it so late, but the government only responded in a childish way, saying, "We had prepared so diligently that it took until this time."

The government's main questioning consisted largely of the supplementary statement and was completed in 20 minutes.

In response, Attorneys Nohara and Abiko, who are in charge of the cross-examination, conducted a cross-examination for about 40 minutes. As it is a medical matter, I will not go into detail here, but the key points were: 1) impeachment of Dr. Katsumata's judgment that the death was due to heart disease (CTAVN, etc.); 2) impeachment of Dr. Katsumata's denial that the death was due to suffocation; 3) impeachment of the view that the relatively high rectal temperature of Mr. Suraj's body indicates violent resistance on his part; 4) pointing out that Dr. Katsumata's opinion is inconsistent with the findings of Dr. Tasukuri, which the state submitted in the first instance; and 5) pointing out that Dr. Katsumata was literally only having an "armchair" discussion without any direct involvement in the autopsy or organ examination in this case.

Dr. Katsumata is the type of person who gives lengthy answers to each question, which made cross-examination difficult; however, it also seemed that he did not even remember the term "CTAVN" (cystic tumor of the cardiac atrioventricular node), which has been a hot topic throughout the trial, and it appears that he is not knowledgeable about cardiac matters, is unable to accurately explain the relationship to Tasukuri's testimony, and the fact that his rectal temperature is high does not necessarily support Mr. Suraj's fierce resistance. It seems that the cross-examination left an impression that he was not knowledgeable about cardiac matters, and was unable to accurately explain the relationship to Tasukuri's testimony.

This means that the evidence at the appeal court is essentially complete, so both parties will promptly prepare and submit a summary brief. The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18th at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 825 of the Tokyo High Court, and the appeal court hearing will conclude on this day. The next hearing is expected to be the one after that when the appeal court verdict will be handed down. We appreciate your continued support.

*We would like to take this opportunity to report that the travel expenses for all four people for the interrogation in Nagoya were covered by donations from APFS.