EDITORIAL: Forced indictment

A citizens committee, demanding that the truth be revealed in a court of law, overturned prosecutors' repeated decision not to indict a suspect.

Kobe's No. 2 prosecution inquest committee decided to force an indictment against the suspect over a fatal stampede on a pedestrian bridge in July 2001 in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture.

The committee is the first to make such a decision. A court-appointed lawyer will serve as a prosecutor to indict a former deputy chief of the Akashi police station on charges of professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries.

A prosecution inquest committee, which comprises citizens representing the public, is tasked with checking prosecutors' decisions not to pursue an indictment.

Under the revised prosecution inquest law that went into force last May, a suspect will be automatically indicted if a prosecution inquest committee twice decides that the suspect should be prosecuted.

The Kobe committee twice judged that the Akashi case was "appropriate for prosecution" after the legal revision. Even before the revision, the committee twice reached the same conclusion.

Eleven people died and 247 were injured in the stampede after a fireworks display organized by the Akashi city government.

Hyogo prefectural police sent papers to Kobe prosecutors on 12 people assigned to maintain order at the event. Five were indicted, including an Akashi police officer and municipal officials. But prosecutors dropped the cases against the Akashi police station chief (who later died) and his deputy.

The inquest committee decided to force the indictment against the deputy chief based on its judgment that senior police officers had neglected to fully confirm the security plan and failed to take proper measures to prevent the accident that day.

The court-appointed lawyer will be given access to a vast amount of investigative documents at the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office and will also serve as a prosecutor in the trial.

The security plan at the time was practically a carbon copy of the one made for a fireworks display held seven months earlier. While prosecutors only looked into negligence on the day of the accident, it is difficult to clarify the truth unless the process of drawing up the plan is examined.

Prosecutors initially planned to hold senior Akashi police officers criminally responsible for the accident. But they decided against it after consulting with the high public prosecutors office and others.

Despite the repeated judgment by the inquest committee that the case was appropriate for prosecution, prosecutors did not change their opinion. Did they stick to that stance out of favorable consideration for the police?

We support the inquest committee's idea to "reveal facts and clarify where responsibility lies in an open trial rather than merely determining if the suspect is guilty or not."

For that, the Kobe prosecutors office must provide all evidence and fully cooperate with the appointed lawyer conducting the supplementary investigation.

Along with the citizen judge system, giving prosecution inquest committees stronger authority is a main pillar of judiciary reform. It is aimed at reflecting citizens' opinions on the decisions of prosecutors, who had been granted the exclusive authority to decide whether a suspect should be indicted.

Prosecutors rarely provide reasons why they drop cases. The inquest committee's decision is expected to serve as leverage to change the prosecution's stance.

The revised inquest system affects prosecutors' investigations of politicians.

For example, Nishimatsu Construction Co. was found to have used a dummy organization to buy tickets to a fund-raising party of the Liberal Democratic Party's Nikai faction.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office re-examined its decision to drop the case in response to an inquest committee's conclusion that it was appropriate for prosecution. A former president of the company was indicted and convicted of violating the Political Fund Control Law.

The common sense of ordinary citizens is beginning to change the judicial system. We will keep an eye on the trial of the former deputy chief.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 29