 A man unjustly held for distributing JCP flyers Tokyo's Kameari Police Station unjustly arrested a man on December 23 for distributing flyers outlining the Japanese Communist Party's achievements and actions in the Tokyo Metropolitan and Katsushika Ward assemblies. The police held the man on suspicion of trespassing and searched his house on the following day without allowing witnesses to be present. Akahata of December 25 said that the arrest was unjust as it took place immediately after the Tokyo District Court ruled that distributing anti-war flyers in an apartment house building for Self-Defense Forces members was in conformity with the constitutional freedom of political expression. On the day of the arrest, the Japanese Communist Party Katsushika District Committee assembled at the police station to protest the arrest as political repression and demanded that the man be immediately released. On the following day, the party committee with 50 citizens staged a protest in front of the police station, heavily guarded by 20 policemen, and called for his release. (end) |