PUBLIC STATEMENT
Japan: Secret hangings challenge international human rights protection
At a time when Japan should be taking a lead in protecting human rights
in the Asia region by backing international action on East Timor, it has
instead chosen today to secretly execute another three people, Amnesty
International said.
The human rights organisation deeply regrets the hanging of Masashi Sato,
62, Katsutoshi Takada, 61, and Tesuyuki Morikawa, 69, who had each spent
seven years on death row. As usual, the executions were carried out
without their families being informed.
The timing of the executions seem to send a message that the government
of Japan is once again flagrantly ignoring the UN Human Rights
Committee's (HRC) recommendations in October 1998 that Japan take steps
to abolish the death penalty. The HRC also expressed serious concern
about the conditions under which persons are held on death row. It
recommended that conditions of detention be 'made humane' in accordance
with articles 7 and 10 of the ICCPR.
The decision to hang three men when the world's attention is focused on
the crisis in East Timor also appears to indicate Japan's unwillingness
to face public criticism for its use of the death penalty. Carrying out
these executions during a period of parliamentary recess indicates
further the government's deliberate attempt to avoid accountability.
The three men executed today had been detained for several years in
conditions that amount to cruel and inhuman treatment. Death row
prisoners in Japan continue to be held in solitary confinement with
almost no contact with the outside world. They are generally prevented
>from meeting and talking to other prisoners, from receiving visits or
letters and even from engaging in conversation with prison guards.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, as it
violates the right to life and constitutes the ultimate form of cruel,
inhuman and degrading punishment. The organization is particularly
concerned about the secrecy surrounding executions in Japan.
ENDS.../
--------------------------------------
Amnesty International Japanese Section
<webmaster@amnesty.or.jp>
<http://www.amnesty.or.jp/>
forwarded by:
KOISHI Hikaru
photon@po.teleway.ne.jp