A Japanese court on Wednesday ordered the state to pay 110,000 yen in damages for the illegal restraint of a Peruvian man of Japanese descent while he was detained at an immigration facility in Osaka in 2017.
In the lawsuit seeking about 2 million yen in compensation, the Osaka District Court acknowledged that the decision to use handcuffs was reasonable but ruled that immigration officers acted without meeting the necessary requirements.
According to the ruling and other sources, the man was placed in a solitary cell at the Osaka Regional Immigration Services Bureau on Dec 20, 2017, after he became violent following complaints about his lunch.
As he attempted to lunge at an officer, he was restrained face down and handcuffed with his arms behind his back for about 90 minutes. Although the handcuffs were removed, he was again restrained in the same manner for more than 14 hours from around 9:10 p.m. after he began banging on the wall and door.
In delivering the ruling, Presiding Judge Ryoichi Horibe said it was reasonable to conclude that the man could not be adequately restrained without using handcuffs behind his back, given his level of agitation.
But the judge noted that the man became quiet and fell asleep after 1 a.m. on Dec 21. He also criticized the immigration officers for lacking careful judgment in continuing to use handcuffs for more than eight consecutive hours, which required a superior’s approval.
The man filed the lawsuit in 2020 and was later provisionally released, but died in 2023. His common-law wife subsequently took over the case.
The defendant’s lawyers welcomed the court’s support for some of their arguments but expressed disappointment that the ruling was based on the assumption that handcuffing behind the back, which they described as “a human rights violation,” is permissible.
They indicated that they will appeal the ruling.
The immigration bureau, meanwhile, said it “will examine the ruling and discuss how to respond.”
The treatment of foreign nationals detained at Japanese immigration facilities has faced growing scrutiny in recent years, particularly after Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman, died in March 2021 at a Nagoya detention center following about a month of complaints about ill health.
© KYODO
© Japan Today
