FirstHousePooka said:
23 days is still a hell of a long time, especially if youre innocent.
I couldn't agree more. Especially when you have no legal right to have an attorney present, nor even to consult with one until criminal charges are filed.
One of the favorite devices the Japanese police like to use is the 再逮捕 (saitaiho) or "re-arrest". Listen for it in news stories.
An essential element of the re-arrest device is the routine denial of pre-trial bail. Without it, it would have little chance of success. Here's what it is:
A person is arrested on suspicion of some (relatively) large crime, but the police haven't been able to put together sufficient evidence, so during interrogation they work the traditional good cop / bad cop routine on the suspect during interrogations sessions that can run damned near round-the-clock, with sleep and food deprivation being favored additional tools. In many crimes in Japan, the police can not actually arrest a person unless the person is caught in the act or makes a confession. Often, the person in the jail is
technicallynot under arrest, but is there under circumstances known as 任意同行 (nin'i doukou) (voluntarily going along to the police station). The police are under strong time pressure here to do something, anything, to get an arrest on some charge, any charge at all.
But....they....need....a....confession.
So they have a guy hauled in for burglary, for example, and the guy just is
not going to cooperate with the investigation (whether because he's guilty and doesn't want to go to jail, or because he actually didn't do it and couldn't tell them what they're looking for anyway)......
Made up example follows:
"It must have been you. A neighbor saw you moving toward that house."
"Yeah, I was there. But I didn't break in."
"What were you doing then?"
"I just stepped over there to take a leak."
"So you were just taking a piss?"
"Yes"
"Gotcha! You're under arrest."
Remember, we're dealing with that 23 day limit here, and an effort to circumvent it. By making an arrest on the lesser charge (yes, it's against the law to do that), they have something they can immediately run up the system and get charges filed on. The 23 day clock is no longer ticking. It's dead. The prosecutor files charges and requests that pre-trial bail not be granted. The only way a prosecutor will ever agree to not block bail is if he has a confession (to the greater crime, not the lesser) in hand
before he goes to court. Otherwise, if you plan to fight it, you can damned well sit there and rot until the trial starts....which may be weeks or months away. Japan has no concept of "speedy trial".
What's the benefit of doing this? Well, now the police/prosecutors have all the time in the world to either break a recalcitrant suspect who is in fact guilty, or to twist and turn things (or manufacture evidence, including falsified confessions from the suspect) from both types of suspect, the actually guilty and the actually innocent. The interrogations continue right on through until trial time, and the 23 day limit no longer has a blessed thing to do with it.
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Thank you.
