The police apologize in serious of the Japanese businessman who was arrested and died unfairly after a long detention

The senior officials in charge of enforcing the law of Japan apologized to the family of a businessman who was unfairly arrested and died after a month arrest.

Shizuo Ashima, former advisor to the machinery firm Ohkawara Kakohki, was one of the three executives of the company in illegal detention for months for positions that later retired.

Human rights activists have long demanded the end of the practice of “justice of hostages” in Japan, where investigators use long arrests prior to trial to coercion confessions.

The senior officials of the Tokyo Police, the Department of Public Prosecutors and the Office of the Tokyo prosecutor visited Aisehima’s family and tomb on Monday. The officials knelt down and prayed in front of the grave, Japan Times reported.

“We sincerely apologize to carry out illegal investigation and arrest,” said Tetsuro Kamata, deputy general superintendent of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, during a televised meeting with the family.

Ashima’s wife said: “I accept the apologies, but I will not be able to forgive.”

The three men were arrested and accused in March 2020 for charges that illegally exported spray dryers capable of producing biological weapons, the exports they argued were legal.

Aisshima was diagnosed with progressive cancer in October 2020, but prosecutors kept him arrested, arguing that he could destroy the evidence if he was released. He was admitted to a hospital a month later.

His two colleagues were released in February 2021 with the condition that they did not meet Ashimima, preventing them from being seen before dying that same month.

The prosecutors then withdrew the positions, which led the family and colleagues in Aisehima to sue the authorities.

Tokyo police and Tokyo prosecutors apologized directly to the company and others in June, Japan Times reported. In his report on the investigation, the police said that “it lacked fundamental investigation principles as an organization, and that the chain of command was dysfunctional,” the media said.

The Superior Court of Tokyo determined that investigation, arrests and accusation were illegal and were not backed by evidence.

The family’s lawyer, Tsuyoshi Takada, said at a press conference that the arrest of men, authorized several times in court, “was not the mistake of a single judge.”

“We need to change the wrong attitudes of all judges,” he said. “The court must learn from this and think about what they can do so that there are no more victims of ‘justice of hostages’ in the future.”

Ashima’s eldest son said he had feelings found on apologies and requested a new investigation of the case, Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.

“I take them as a step forward, since they recognized the illegal arrest, the requests for detention and prosecution,” he said. “I cannot accept the findings of their reviews and the disciplinary actions taken.”

• Japan