Japanese Police Has Decided Not To File Criminal Charges Against 10 Immigration Officials Who Beat A Ghanaian Illegal Immigrant To Death.

Someone aptly said, imagine waking up in the morning to read in your newspapers the following:

"Prosecutors in GHANA will not press charges over the case of a JAPANESE man who died as he was being restrained by up to 10 immigration officials as they tried to deport him,

I Wonder what the reaction in Japan would be.

I am reproducing here the news report as reported in Japan Today news site.


No charges over Ghana deportee's death in Japan

Crime Jul. 06, 2012 - 06:37AM JST ( 134 )

TOKYO —

Prosecutors in Japan will not press charges over the case of a Ghanaian man who died as he was being restrained by up to 10 immigration officials as they tried to deport him, media have reported.

Abubakar Awudu Suraj, 45, died at Tokyo’s Narita airport in March 2010 as he was being bundled aboard a plane bound for Cairo.

Suraj’s Japanese widow filed a complaint with police, challenging authorities to explain exactly how her husband died as he was being deported for illegally staying in Japan.

Police said earlier that “the immigration officials restrained the man who had wildly resisted”.

Rights activists have claimed he was gagged with a towel, recalling a similar but non-fatal case in 2004 when a female Vietnamese deportee was handcuffed, had her mouth sealed with tape and was rolled up in blankets. His widow told reporters Wednesday that prosecutors ordered the man’s heart be retained for forensic analysis, but had not initially informed her of the decision, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.

They had also said her late husband may have died as a result of a heart condition, the paper said.

Japan keeps a tight control on immigration and in 2011, despite its generous overseas aid for refugees, granted political asylum to only 21 people.

Human rights activists, lawyers and migrant communities have complained for years about the harsh treatment meted out by immigration officials and about conditions at detention centers.

(End of News report)

The following are just a few comments posted by readers. The new article above attracted over 200 comments most condemning the brutal manner in which a so called civilized country like Japan treated murdered this guy and lack of justice for him. Anywhere else, this is big news killing someone in state custody, but the press in Japan did not pay much attention to it. A lot of condemnation is reserved for the Ghana government, Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ghana Embassy in Tokyo for their seemingly lack of action in protecting the human rights of its citizens.


* No charges is yet another crime, the first being the killing of Suraj!

* Absolutely not a surprise in a country where the majority of people believe "human rights" only apply to Japanese. The murder of a foreigner is probably looked on as not involving a human being's life, just a foreigner!

* AND WHAT IS THE GHANAIAN EMBASSY DOING TO SEEK JUSTICE FOR THIS POOR SOUL?

* It does not take 10 men to subdue one person? Who had the handcuffs and shackles? With his hands in handcuffs and his legs shackled, they gagged him and repeatedly kicked and hit him. That's barbaric in the 21st century !

* Why do they have to kill this man? They had a duty to send him back home alive not dead.

* I hope the Foreign Ministry summons the Japanese Ambassador and tells him to make sure his country serves justice in this case and be a responsible member of the international community.


* An autopsy report seen in a court document notes abrasions to his face, internal bleeding of muscles on the neck, back, abdomen and upper arm, along with leakage of blood around the eyes, blood congestion in some organs, and dark red blood in the heart. Yet the report bizarrely concluded that the cause of death is "unknown.

* They killed him through over exuberance restraining him, he was treated in an abhorrent manner, there is no justifying killing him. Remember he was alone. Confined and threatened mentally, no legal council no chance to state his case. This would be a huge story in a civilized country where accountability is paramount, killing anyone under state care is disgusting. He had not killed anyone, just a visa problem.

* Will Suraj ever get justice?

I hope the government of Ghana will make sure Suraj gets justice.

Ben Ofosu-Appiah,

Tokyo - JAPAN.

The writer is a senior political and social analyst and a policy strategist based in Tokyo. Helcomes your views and comments; do4luv27@yahoo.com