ladyarkles
10-28-2007, 09:57 PM
The Japanese have one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world. But 99% of all people accused of breaking laws there are found guilty.
In Japan it can be difficult to resist police demands for you to tell them what they want to hear.
The system of long detention before trial for questioning is known in Japanese as "daiyo kangoku" - substitute prison.
The head of Amnesty International in Japan is Makoto Teranaka. "It is torture," he insists, "psychological torture. Under this system I think Japan is not a society where you have fair trials." "These people are isolated and cannot have the lawyers inside their detention cell. People who are suspected are excluded from normal society and they are 100% under the control of the police," he says.
Full report - BBC Newsonline (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7063316.stm)
In Japan it can be difficult to resist police demands for you to tell them what they want to hear.
The system of long detention before trial for questioning is known in Japanese as "daiyo kangoku" - substitute prison.
The head of Amnesty International in Japan is Makoto Teranaka. "It is torture," he insists, "psychological torture. Under this system I think Japan is not a society where you have fair trials." "These people are isolated and cannot have the lawyers inside their detention cell. People who are suspected are excluded from normal society and they are 100% under the control of the police," he says.
Full report - BBC Newsonline (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7063316.stm)