A travesty of justice

要約

The police have apologized to four people for mistakenly arresting them over threats posted on the Internet. The police admitted their error after it became evident that the threats had been made by an unknown person who hacked their computers — but not before the police had extracted confessions from two of the four suspects. The police must thoroughly examine their mistakes, and make public their findings and what corrective measures will be taken to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

The prosecution is also to blame for this travesty of justice. After two of the suspects confessed, the prosecution indicted one and sent the case of the other, a 19-year-old student, to a family court, which placed him on probation. Obviously the public prosecutors did not carry out a careful investigation and simply believed the reports sent to them by the police. The police and prosecution should realize that they have committed grave errors and compromised their credibility as law-enforcement organizations.

On Oct. 9 and 10, e-mails were sent to Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. and to a Tokyo lawyer announcing that the sender was the true perpetrator, and disclosing details that only the real culprit could have known. The person said that he wanted to fool the police and planned to rescue those who were arrested.

Clearly police investigators paid attention only to IP addresses but completely ignored the fact that while IP addresses identify devices, they do not, of course, identify users. They also failed to check for evidence of malware or investigate the alibis of the arrested people.

Most ominous is the fact that two of the arrested falsely confessed to the crimes during police interrogations. This strongly suggests that investigators applied intense psychological pressure and used leading questions during interrogation sessions. Displaying a reprehensibly lackadaisical attitude, the prosecution made a record of the confession that contained the same content as the statement that the student gave to the police while being interrogated. Both cases clearly demonstrate the need for police and public prosecutors to electronically record interrogations in their entirety.

日本語の抄訳はウィークリ11月3日号のP18に掲載されています。