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apfseditor 
Please send both paper and electronic signatures so that they arrive at the APFS office by Tuesday, April 15th.
(Please see the signature sheet below for the address.)
This is a short notice request, but we appreciate your cooperation.
On March 22, 2010, Abubakar Awudu Suraj (hereinafter referred to as Suraj), a Ghanaian national, died during government-sponsored deportation. In December of the same year, 10 immigration officials who accompanied the deportation were referred to the prosecutor's office on suspicion of assault and cruelty resulting in death by a special public official.
On July 3, 2012, two years and four months after the incident, the Chiba District Public Prosecutors Office found the 10 officials innocent of all charges and did not indict them. The decision was that Suraj's death was caused by a pre-existing heart condition, and that there was no causal relationship to the immigration officials' use of restraints during deportation (excessive use of unauthorized restraining devices).
Although the cause of death was unknown at first, we have serious doubts about the discovery of Suraj's heart disease, which the prosecution listed as the cause of death more than two years after the incident. Even if he had a heart disease, it is hard to believe that it developed completely unrelated to the restraining action. The fact that the immigration officials themselves stopped videotaping the deportation process makes us suspect that the restraint was so excessive and cruel that it could not be recorded.
In response to the district court ruling in the state compensation lawsuit acknowledging the illegality of the immigration officials' restraining action and its causal relationship to Suraj's death, we have decided to finally file a petition, which had been pending until now, with the Prosecutor's Review Board, requesting compulsory indictment of the immigration officials who accompanied him. The date has not yet been finalized, but we will file the petition by the end of this month at the latest.
Along with the petition, we will also submit the signatures we have been requesting to the Prosecutor's Review Board. We have collected over 1,300 signatures so far, but we would like to increase that number. We would appreciate your cooperation in collecting signatures again.
It is clear that the actions of the immigration officials are worthy of prosecution. We believe that the decision not to prosecute is due to the prosecutors' lax judgment and distortion of the facts when it comes to immigration officials, who are essentially family members. Suraj's family also wants severe punishment. We ask for your cooperation in signing this petition, asking the Prosecutor's Review Board to carefully review this case and make a decision to forcibly prosecute.
★The signature form can be downloaded below.
(Japanese)
(English)
★We have also started an electronic petition (change.org). Please reach out to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Change.org petition site