Carlos Ghosn and Japanese Police

Carlos Ghosn and Japanese Pol...

A prominent business executive has been arrested on suspicion that he may have underreported his deferred compensation to the government. He has been interrogated without his lawyers being present and has been held in a detention center for more than two weeks without being formally charged with any crime. His detention has now been further extended.

His access to a lawyer is strictly limited to short daily meetings, and his lawyers are forbidden to attend interrogation sessions. Visits by family members are not permitted. He will not be given bail unless he admits his guilt, and he may be detained for as long as 22 days without being charged with any crime. At the end of this initial period, he may be arrested again on suspicion of another uncharged crime and held for an additional 22 days. This process may be repeated, and he detained for months with no formal charges or more information on the accusations.

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Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized the length of permissible detention in this country, and the prohibition against lawyers being allowed to attend interrogation sessions, as being too conducive to extracting confessions by abusive tactics. These tactics have contributed to what the Economist has described as rising “false convictions” that have been brought to light in recent years. These police and prosecutorial tactics are all too typical of authoritarian regimes such as Iran, Cuba, China, Russia and Turkey.

But the arrest and detention above is taking place in a democratic ally of the United States. This country is Japan.

Read on ...

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/419595-abusive-treatment-of-auto-executive-threatens-the-japanese-legal-system?fbclid=IwAR3BZCYjRSL5WFBtfp5S3KDtvlSvezZnZUevMki_zQzoC3-ppWWyInbwSbM#.XA_ytAg1stE.facebook

I do not like Japanese system.