The Toyama Prefectural Police headquarters is seen in the city of Toyama in this file photo. (Mainichi/Kazuo Yanagisawa)

       TOYAMA -- Central Japan police kept four Vietnamese nationals in an interrogation room without arrest warrants for a maximum of just over 24 hours following voluntarily questioning, before later arresting them on suspicion of attempted murder, it has emerged.

       The Toyama-ken Bar Association criticized the actions of Toyama Prefectural Police's Imizu Police Station as a "de facto arrest and an illegal investigation," and made protests against prefectural police and the Toyama District Public Prosecutors Office.

       Early on Sept. 20, a 27-year-old Vietnamese man was found collapsed and bleeding from his head in an apartment in the Toyama prefectural city of Imizu. He had sustained injuries following an assault. In September and October, 14 Vietnamese nationals living in the prefecture were arrested for allegedly attempting to murder the victim, among other charges. Among them, seven were indicted for "unlawful assembly with weapons" and other crimes. Investigations are still underway.

       According to the bar association, from Sept. 20 to the early hours of Sept. 21, four of the 14 suspects were kept in Imizu Police Station's interrogation room for about 12 to 24 1/2 hours without being served arrest warrants, after undergoing voluntary questioning at the station. Though two later went home temporarily, police officers accompanied them on outings, and their activities continued to be monitored.

       While the four were arrested on the night of Sept. 21, and the Toyama Summary Court approved their detention, a lawyer in charge of the case made a quasi-appeal demanding all four's detention be withdrawn on the basis there had been "serious illegal activity during procedure leading to arrest."

       The Toyama District Court acknowledged it was problematic to detain them before their arrests, but dismissed the appeal. In giving a reason for the dismissal, it stated that the conditions for emergency arrests without warrants were believed to have been met, and that the detention request wasn't serious enough to be deemed illegal.

       In 2020, Toyama Prefectural Police also made a Vietnamese technical intern trainee stay at a hotel while undergoing voluntary questioning on suspicion of murder and other charges. There, they were repeatedly subjected to long hours of questioning under police officers' supervision. In this case, the Toyama District Court dismissed prosecutors' requests for detention in response to a quasi-appeal by the technical intern's lawyer, and exercised authority from a judge to detain them. The Toyama-ken Bar Association submitted a statement under its chair's name protesting against the prefectural police and the district public prosecutors office.

       Toyama-ken Bar Association head Masataka Adachi also submitted a letter of protest regarding the recent case, and stated, "I cannot hide my astonishment and anger that an investigation of a similar nature to one last year has been carried out." Toyama Prefectural Police told the Mainichi Shimbun, "We are investigating the case based on law and evidence," and said it will refrain from responding about an "individual case." The Toyama District Public Prosecutors Office also said it will "withhold from answering."

       (Japanese original by Shunsuke Takara, Toyama Bureau)

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