Japan Press Weekly

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2015 April 15 - 21 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

High court supports lower court ordering Tokyo to pay compensation to Muslims

The Tokyo High Court on April 14 issued a ruling upholding the lower court decision ordering the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to pay about 90 million yen in compensation to 17 Muslims.

The 17 Muslims were fighting a lawsuit demanding that the national government and the Tokyo government pay a total of 187 million yen in compensation for damages caused by leakage on the Internet of their personal information that the Public Security Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had collected under the guise of prevention of terrorism.

In the court battle, they claimed that the gathering of information on all Muslims in Tokyo, whether or not they commit crimes, by the security police infringes on the freedom of religion and is illegal.

The high court in its ruling warned the police that personal information gathering is not always justifiable. It, however, rejected the plaintiffs’ demand for state compensation.

At a press conference after the ruling, plaintiffs’ lawyer Iwai Makoto welcomed the ruling but announced that the plaintiffs will appeal to the top court as the high court ruling accepted the illegal information gathering by the police.

A plaintiff in his 30s said, “I think, at a time when groundless rumors about Muslims are going around, the court should have declared the police monitoring of Muslims to be illegal.”

Past related article:
> Court orders Tokyo to pay 17 Muslims Y90 mil for defamation [January 16, 2013]