Why suspects in Japan are almost never acquitted
And it is facing renewed criticism
In 2020 the president of Ohkawara Kakohki, a small machinery-making firm in Yokohama, near Tokyo, was arrested along with two of its executives. The charge? That the company was sending equipment to be turned into biological weapons in China. The three were detained for 11 months. Their application for bail was rejected by judges five times. The investigators implied they would be freed if they admitted the crime, but they refused. By the time they were released on bail one of them had died from stomach cancer without access to treatment. They were all eventually found to be innocent.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Confess, or else”
From the November 9th 2024 edition
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Prabowo Subianto is drastically cutting Indonesia’s budget
The cash saved is going into a new fund he controls
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