Gov’t-proposed revisions to criminal procedure rules cannot prevent human rights abuses
August 22, 2015
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2015 August 19 - 25 [POLITICS]
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Japan’s House of Councilors on August 21 began to deliberate on the Abe government-proposed revisions to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Wiretapping Law.
To prevent false accusations, it is essential to record the full process of police interrogation of suspects. However, the bill intends to extremely limit the scope of interrogation to be recorded. In addition, it aims to introduce a plea bargaining system.
In the United States, cases of false accusation take place frequently under the plea bargain system. In these cases, based only on confessions made by “accomplices”, many innocent people are falsely charged and even convicted.
It is urgently needed to videotape the entire process of police investigation into criminal cases because Japan’s law enforcement has often coerced and coaxed suspects into making confessions in line with the police-created scenario. According to the bill, however, the cases whose interrogation process will be taped accounts for only 2% of all criminal cases.
The proposed measure also intends to allow the police to tap telephones when investigating general crimes such as robbery, bodily injury, fraud, and extortion.
The need now is to further increase public opposition to the bill by working to make more people aware of the danger of the amendments.
Past related article:
> JCP Shimizu reveals 85% of police wiretaps have nothing to do with crime [May 22, 2015]
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