[Media-watch] ai: arbitary arrest+continued detention of peace activists

[Sigi D]

Dear Media Watch friends
enclosed email from ai:
three peace activists have been arrested in Tokyo,
Japan, held for a long time,etc.(email ai enclosed).
AI regards them as prisoners of conscience. 
I am quite shocked about what's happening.
Maybe one of you journalists could investigate and
write about it? 
All the best, 
Sigi

From : 	Amnesty International <ai-news at amnesty.org>
Reply-To : 	<ai-news at amnesty.org>
Sent : 	18 March 2004 10:17:06
Subject : 	Japan: arbitrary arrest and continued
detention of peace activists
News Release Issued by the International Secretariat
of Amnesty International

AI INDEX: ASA 22/001/2004     18 March 2004   

Japan: arbitrary arrest and continued detention of
peace activists is a
violation of their basis rights to freedom of
expression


Amnesty International strongly condemns the detention
in police custody of three
activists for over two weeks for distributing
pamphlets opposing the despatch of
Japanese Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to Iraq. 

The three activists -- two men and a woman -- were
arrested in the western Tokyo
suburb of Tachikawa on 27 February 2004 under charges
of "trespassing" under
Article 130 of the Japanese Criminal Code.

The activists were distributing pamphlets which called
for people to think more
carefully about the deployment of the SDF. They were
distributed to mailboxes at
the SDF personnel's housing units in the western Tokyo
suburb of Tachikawa.

Amnesty International considers these activists to be
prisoners of conscience,
detained in violation of their right to freedom of
expression guaranteed under
Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution and Article 19
of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, an
international treaty to which Japan
is a state party. They should be released immediately.


The organization also notes with concern the
harassment meted out to the
families of the three activists including searches of
their houses and the
subsequent impounding of their notes and personal
computers.

The three activists have been in police custody in
Tachikawa where they have
been subjected to nearly eight hours of interrogation
every day since their
arrest. No lawyer is present during the interrogation.
Information received by
Amnesty International suggests that they have been
interrogated by authorities
belonging to the public security unit of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police
suggesting that this case has national security
implications. 

"We call for their immediate release and pending their
release, Japan should
ensure that their rights -- as guaranteed in
international human rights
standards to which Japan is a state party -- are
protected," Amnesty
International said.


View all documents on Japan at
http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maab3tTaa5gnubew2yLb/

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