The lawsuit of Mr. Suraj’s case: Appealed to the Supreme Court

We appealed to the Supreme Court against the sentence by the High Court on February 1, which was the deadline of its procedure.
In the name of Suraj’s mother, we claimed on national compensation 2,500,000 Yen, which was admitted by the first trial. We have a message from Mr. Suraj’s wife to everyone who is interested in this case.
“Dear Supporters for Suraj’s case,
As Suraj’s wife, I would like to express my deep appreciation for your help.
Thanks to all of you, we can appeal and continue the lawsuit in the name of his mother on behalf of the bereaved family
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Suraj’s wife”

The next trial will be conducted in the Supreme Court.
It would be nice if you could have an interest in this case continuously.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Judgment was rendered at the state compensation suit for Mr. Suraj’s case in High Court

The judgment was rendered at the state compensation suit for Mr. Suraj’s in Tokyo High Court on January 18, 2016. This time, admission tickets were distributed and the public gallery was full.
The chief judge gave judgment that the original judgment should be reversed and the claim by the plaintiff at the first trial should be dismissed.
The reasons for the judgment were as follows:
At the process of Mr. Suraj’s death, he had already fainted before his body was forced to bend forward, which fact the plaintiff saw as a problem.
As for the cause of his death, there are no clear findings that imply suffocation, and on the contrary, the CTAVN had become significantly big in Mr. Suraj’s heart, which must have affected his health. As the diagnosis the six doctors (who were appointed by the defendant) gave, the cause of death was fatal arrhythmia caused by the CTAVN.
As for the illegality against the State Redress Law, the restraining acts by the officials were reasonable, and even if the stress given by the restraining acts caused the CTAVN disorders, the officials couldn’t have predicted it. Therefore, the restraining act was not illegal.
As regards the responsibility for the emergency treatment, a death by the CTAVN cannot be saved by AEDs, so even if the officials neglected the responsibility, there have been no casual relations with Mr. Suraj’s death.
As mentioned above, the rulings we have won in the District Court were all reversed, and based on the written documents by the famous doctors who were requested by the state regardless to expense (some of them didn’t even know the name of CTAVN exactly), the High Court judged that Mr. Suraj had already died before the officials restrained him for a rare disease called CTAVN, and it was impossible for the officials to predict it and it was also difficult to save his life, so they have no fault.
Protests from the public gallery were heard even after the court was dismissed, like: “We didn’t come here to hear such judgment!”, “I can’t believe such a judgment!”, “What an inhuman judgment!”
The above was just a quick report.

Mr. Suraj’s case High Court Judgment day (on 18th Mon, You need to get addmission ticket by 2:40pm)

On March 22, 2010, Abubakar Awudu Suraj (Mr. Suraj from on), a man of Ghana nationality, passed away during deportation at the expense of the government. To find out the truth of Mr. Suraj’s death, on August 5, 2010, we brought a state compensation suit, and on March 19, 2014, the district court rendered an important judgment which stated that the suppression by the immigration department officials was illegal and that this illegal action led to Mr. Suraj’s death. Unfortunately, the state decided the judgment was unjust and filed an appeal to the high court. From this, we too, filed an appeal to the high court.

The case was concluded last time, and the judgment is expected to be delivered next time. Several facts were revealed, such as how the opinions submitted by Doctor Katsumata lacked credibility. We hope a right judgment that condemns the inhumane treatment Mr. Suraj suffered.

Please go to the court and hear a right judgment with us. We kindly ask for your cooperation to be an observer until the last minute.

Please invite your family and friends to be observers and lend us a hand!

High Court Judgment day ＊Only in Japanese

Date & time：　Monday, January 18, 2016   3pm～
Place：　Tokyo High Court, Court Room  #825
*This time, admission ticket is required to come into the court. Please make sure to come to the 2nd distributing point at the main entrance of Tokyo high court to join the lottery by 2:40pm.

After the court, we will have a meeting to have a report by the plaintiff’s lawyers.
Please attend it as well as the court.

Mr. Suraj’s case High Court 6th Trial Hearing

On March 22, 2010, Abubakar Awudu Suraj (Mr. Suraj from on), a man of Ghana nationality, passed away during deportation at the expense of the government. To find out the truth of Mr. Suraj’s death, on August 5, 2010, we brought a state compensation suit, and on March 19, 2014, the district court rendered an important judgment which stated that the suppression by the immigration department officials was illegal and that this illegal action led to Mr. Suraj’s death. Unfortunately, the state decided the judgment was unjust and filed an appeal to the high court. From this, we too, filed an appeal to the high court.

This time, with the questioning to Doctor Katsumata in Nagoya city on September 14, the case is expected to be concluded. It is planed that Mr. Suraj’s widow makes a verbal statement and the plaintiff’s lawyers make final statement.

We believe that the presence of many observers will provide pressure to the Government and serve as an appeal to the judge. We kindly ask for your cooperation to be an observer until the last minute.
Please invite your family and friends to be observers and lend us a hand!

Date & time： Wednesday, November 18, 20１5 10am～
Place：Tokyo High Court, Court Room #825

*After the court, we will have a meeting to have a report by the plaintiff’s lawyers at Studio Plus of Hibiya Library & Museum. They will also talk about the questioning in Nagoya city on September 14. Please attend it as well as the court.

Please Come to Court as an Observer to Support the Lawsuit!!(Mr. Suraj’s Case High Court 1st Trial Hearing)

スラジュさんMr. Suraj

Mr. Suraj’s Case High Court 1st Trial Hearing

Date & time：Wednesday, July 30, 20１4 3.30pm～
Place： Tokyo High Court, Court Room #101　

＊This time, admission ticket is required to come into the court. Please make sure to come to the 2nd distributing point at the main entrance of Tokyo High Court to join the lottery by 3:10 pm.

On March 22, 2010, Abubakar Awudu Suraj (Mr. Suraj from on), a man of Ghana nationality, passed away during deportation at the expense of the government. To find out the truth of Mr. Suraj’s death, on August 5, 2010, we brought a state compensation suit, and on March 19, 2014, the district court rendered an important judgment which stated that the suppression by the immigration department officials was illegal and that this illegal action led to Mr. Suraj’s death. Unfortunately, the state decided the judgment was unjust and filed an appeal to the high court. From this, we too, filed an appeal to the high court.

The appeal hearing will start soon. We predict that the appeal hearing will be shorter than the first hearing but we have to obtain a more favorable decision than the district court’s decision.
The hearing will be held at court room 101 (there are about 90 seats for the observers). Let’s fill the seats with observers and put pressure on the state!

We need more observers in the court-observers will be great power.

The conclusion of a trial for state compensation regarding Mr. Suraj’s case

After the opinion statements by Mr. Suraj’s wife, the plaintiff’s legal team claimed. First, the team argued the fact progress taken for the past 4 years and confirmation of illegality based on what really happened when incident occurred on March 22, 2010.
 
After the incident, there had been no explanations provided by the state to the survivors.

Despite of taking evidence preservation process, the state refused to disclose various evidences behind.

The video capturing the scene of the incident, which was finally disclosed, was stopped recording right after Mr. Suraj and officers entered an aircraft.

 Many cruel facts were finally come out through questioning the immigration officers on these state attitudes of concealing the truths mentioned above at the trail for state compensation.

-Using unauthorized items such as towels or cable tie.

-Forcing him to bend as coercive pose which was unnecessary.

-The testimony by officers that Mr. Suraj resisted was a lie.

  After that, the team argued the casual relationship between the death of Mr. Suraj and illegal acts of immigration officers and also stated how irrational the defendant statement was; Mr. Suraj’s heart stopped, which is related to his heart tumor, at the very moment when he was forced to bend.


 Also, there had been no scientific evidence provided, rather the state argued only based on doctor’s testimonies.

 Taking these into consideration, the team stated that it is very clear that Mr. Suraj death was caused by the coercive acts by officers.

 The trail was ended in about 40 minutes, and after that we moved to another place for report. The report included explanations about closing arguments and withdrawing of 9 immigration officers as defendant. After that, there were many questions given by the participants which we could feel their passions toward the next judgment.

Please Come to Court as an Observer to Support the Lawsuit!!(High Court 1st Trial Hearing)

スラジュさん
Mr.Suraj

High Court 1st Trial Hearing

Date ：Wednesday, July 30, 2014  3:30pm～
Place：Tokyo High Court, Court Room #101
＊Only in Japanese

On March 22, 2010, Abubakar Awudu Suraj (Mr. Suraj from on), a man of Ghana nationality, passed away during deportation at the expense of the government. To find out the truth of Mr. Suraj’s death, on August 5, 2010, we brought a state compensation suit, and on March 19, 2014, the district court rendered an important judgment which stated that the suppression by the immigration department officials was illegal and that this illegal action led to Mr. Suraj’s death. Unfortunately, the state decided the judgment was unjust and filed an appeal to the high court. From this, we too, filed an appeal to the high court.

The appeal hearing will start soon. We predict that the appeal hearing will be shorter than the first hearing but we have to obtain a more favorable decision than the district court’s decision. The hearing will be held at court room 101 (there are about 90 seats for the observers). Let’s fill the seats with observers and put pressure on the state!

We need more observers in the court-observers will be great power.

【Contact】
NPO ASIAN PEOPLE‘S FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY (A.P.F.S.)
56-6-301 Oyama-higashi-cho 　
Tel: 03-3964-8739  Fax: 03-3579-0197
Website : http://apfs.jp/ E-mail : apfs-1987@nifty.com

Day of Judgement – Mr. Suraj’s case

2014年3月18日 火曜日

スラジュさんの絵
The painting by Mr. Suraj


Date & time：　Wednesday, March, 19th, 2014 10:30am～ ＊Only in Japanese
Place：Tokyo District Court, Court Room #103 ※Please directly come to the court.
(Tokyo Metro “Kasumigaseki” station A1 exit)

On March 22, 2010, Ghanaian citizen Abubakar Awudu Suraj, died as he was being deported from Japan. The deportation was carried out without Suraj’s consent and at government expense. Moreover, it is known that Immigration Department officials accompanying him used unauthorized items—such as handcuffs on legs, a towel, and nylon ties—to restrain him before he died.

The Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Bureau have not yet provided an official explanation as to how and why Suraj died. On August 5, 2011—in order to get closer to the truth behind Suraj’s death—Suraj’s widow launched a lawsuit claiming damages against the Japanese government and Immigration Department officials. Suraj regretted that he overstayed his visa, but he only wanted to live in Japan with his wife. Through this lawsuit, we aim to bring to light exactly why Suraj had to die.

The next hearing is the judgement finally. Through this trial, the fact became clear that reality of deportation was cruel, and that immigration official’s awareness of human rights was very low level. And we doubted the second autopsy report that established Mr. Suraj’s cause of death more than ever before. Please come to hear directly how the court will determine.

On APFS activities for the time being (We are focusing on the Mr. Suraj case)

2014年3月18日 火曜日
デモ
Demonstration walk after Mr. Suraj’s death

At APFS, we believe that a case winning judgment will be made by the Tokyo District Court on March 19th 2014 with regard to the ‘Lawsuit for state compensation regarding Mr. Suraj’s Case’.
In which case, we are anticipating the state site to make an appeal, so for the time being we are concentrating our movement on this case, such as a signature collection campaign for ‘No Appeal’.

Our movement to save undocumented migrant families, our various activities for a multicultural society, we have many things to do.
After a certain chain of motion with regard to Mr. Suraj’s case, we will engage in them in order.

Please Support the ‘No Appeal Movement’ regarding the Trial for State Compensation in Mr. Suraj’s Case

スラジュさん

Mr. Suraj

On March 22, 2010, Ghanaian Citizen Abubakar Awudu Suraj, died as he was being deported from Japan. The deportation was carried out without Suraj’s consent and at government expense. Moreover, it is known that Immigration Department officials accompanying him used unauthorized items-such as handcuffs on legs, a towel, and nylon ties- to restrain him before he died.

Almost four years have passed since Mr. Suraj died on March 22nd 2010. We have been engaged in unraveling the truth about Mr. Suraj’s death in a trial for state compensation since August 5th 2011. The court is scheduled to deliver its judgment on March 19th this year. The counselors in the attorney team have made many facts clear, and thanks to the attention of many supporters, the truth about Mr. Suraj’s death, as well as the whereabouts of the state’s responsibility was made clear. Since this is a trial against the state, we cannot be optimistic, but there is real possibility that Mr. Suraj’s side will win the case. Therefore, we are organizing a short-term signature collection campaign as part of the ‘No Appeal Movement’ to stop the state side from appealing against the court’s decision in case the plaintiff wins the trial. Since there is already a possibility for appeal on the day of the judgment, we set the goal of collecting 10,000 signatures in one week after the day of the ‘trial winning’ judgment.

If a ‘trial winning’ judgment is made, we have to mobilize right away. Below, we are sending you a signature format. We would like to ask you to make requests (and to collect signatures) in advance. On the day of the judgment, we immediately start adding up results. We humbly ask for your cooperation!

You can download the signature collecting sheet from below.
Japanese version
English version