Cop off hook in suspect's death
High court says man shot himself during interrogation
By HIROSHI MATSUBARA
Staff writer
The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that a 55-year-old suspect was shot dead by a policeman during an interrogation in 1997 and instead decided the victim committed suicide, rejecting a redress demand by the man's daughter.
The high court supported the Kanagawa Prefectural Police claim that Yoshio Yanagi committed suicide during an interrogation at the Tobe Police Station in Yokohama's Nishi Ward.
In its 2002 ruling on the daughter's damages suit, the Yokohama District Court said it was unlikely that Yanagi, head of a Yokohama financial firm who also had underworld ties, could commit suicide in the interrogation room and ruled that he had in fact been "accidentally" shot to death by a sergeant who was grilling him.
In reversing the lower court decision, presiding Judge Toshinobu Akiyama of the high court said it was technically possible for Yanagi to snatch a bullet from a plastic bag placed on a table as evidence, when the two interrogators were not looking.
The judge also said that Yanagi was accustomed to using a handgun and thus could load the weapon and shoot himself in the presence of one of the officers.
He also rejected the daughter's claim that police at least bear responsibility for leaving a firearm accessible to a suspect under interrogation, saying the victim's actions in such a situation could not have been predictable.
In a news conference after the ruling, Yanagi's daughter, 28, said while she had been told by lawyers that higher courts are usually more supportive of the government side than lower courts, she was still surprised by the high court's complete dismissal of the lower court ruling.
"Even if he killed himself, the ruling offers no convincing answer as to why and how he did it," she said.
Her lawyer said she will appeal to the Supreme Court.
Yanagi was arrested in October 1997 on suspicion of possessing a handgun.
Police claimed Yanagi shot himself with the same weapon on Nov. 8 the same year while Sgt. Yukio Hasegawa and another officer were interrogating him at the station.
Hasegawa and several others received minor warnings for failing to keep an eye on the suspect. Hasegawa is still on the Kanagawa force.
Refusing to accept the police explanation that Yanagi killed himself, the daughter filed a criminal complaint with the local public prosecutor's office in 2000, charging that Hasegawa somehow shot her father to death. But the prosecutors did not take up the case.
Aiming to uncover what actually happened in the closed interrogation room, the daughter then filed the damages suit, seeking 9.2 million yen in compensation from the Kanagawa Prefectural Office. The district court ordered Kanagawa police to pay her 5 million yen.
She also filed a request with a local Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, which reviews prosecutors' decisions, last year. The committee has not yet handed down a decision on the case.
The Japan Times: April 29, 2004
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