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High court finds ex-police chief guilty of cover-up in man's death

Reversing a lower court's acquittal, the Osaka High Court on March 6 ruled that Takasaki Masayoshi, the former Kujo Police Station (Kyoto) chief is guilty for making a false report over the death of a drunken man taken into police custody in 1997.

The presiding judge stated that the details of the man's death were "shrewdly and systematically concealed" so that the public would not know the truth.

Attempts to cover up police scandals is not limited to the Kujo Police Station. The Kanagawa Prefectural Police in 1999 hushed up an ex-assistant police inspector's drug use problem and the ex-chief of the prefectural police was convicted on charges of concealing the criminal. Within the prefectural police, policemen were also involved in using violence against other policemen, and using photographs to blackmail the photographed woman. The prefectural police, however, did not indict them and just admonished them internally.

High police officials have a strong inclination to heap lie upon lie to conceal internal scandals. It is necessary to establish a third-party institution to check on the police because they lack a self-cleansing ability and to publish information regarding criminal behavior by police.
- Akahata, March 7, 2006