Japan Press Weekly

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2008 July 2 - 8 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

Police charges JCP local assembly member of trespassing, another repression on the right to distribution of fliers by JCP

Police in Kokubunji City in Tokyo have charged a Japanese Communist Party representative of the local assembly on charges of trespassing at an apartment building and reported him to the prosecutors.

It is very unusual that a person who was just inserting copies of a flier in the mailboxes outside of the entrance that uses an auto-lock system has been accused of “trespassing.”

The number of cases of police crackdowns on JCP political activities exercising the constitutional freedom of expression is increasing these days.

On May 18, JCP member of the Kokubunji City Assembly Kohno Osamu was distributing fliers informing citizens about JCP activities in the local assembly in apartment building mailboxes. Then, an apartment resident became angry at him for doing it and later reported the “crime” to the police.

On June 9, the Koganei Police Station which received the resident’s report, reported the case to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Hachioji Branch.

Kawai Hiroyuki, JCP Kokubunji City Assembly Members’ Group head, said, “A city assembly member has the right to deliver fliers published at the city’s policy affair-related expenses to inform the residents of the city’s policy affairs. Criminalizing and investigating the activity is tantamount to violating the principle of residents’ autonomy.”

On July 5, Kohno’s supporters in Kokubunji City established an association in defense of the right to know and the right to inform.

Citizens are critical of the police repression and are demanding that the prosecutors not indict the city assembly member.