In a positive development, the new judge presiding over the case last week gave Nick’s defence lawyer, Mr Miyake, permission to reconstruct the suitcase and its contents in order to prove that the key had been in a pocket in the suitcase all along and that the customs officials had lied.

Customs officials had earlier said that Nick had had the key on his person and had tossed it into the case. Had this been true, it would have indicated that the case was his.

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal Democrat European justice spokesperson who has campaigned since 2002 on behalf of Nick Baker and flew to Tokyo in 2003 with Sabine Zanker of Fair Trials Abroad in the attempt to get him a fair trial, said:

“Only now following a change of judge, and after 3 years of injustice, is the defence being given the chance to expose the original lies of the custom officials.”

"This gives me hope that justice will finally be done, but it is a long and debilitating haul for Nick and his family."

"Japan has many issues to address in the poor treatment of accused persons, but let us hope Nick's eventual acquittal will help provoke reform."

Case History

Nick Baker was arrested in Tokyo in April 2002 on drug-smuggling charges. He was convicted after being interrogated for 23 days without a lawyer at the end of which he signed a document which was not translated and which he therefore didn't understand. He asserts his innocence, alleging he was duped by his travel companion into carrying the bag in which drugs were was found. The prosecution indeed acknowledges the bag was not Nick's.

Nick's trial was marked by an absence of safeguards expected in a civilised country. Not only was there was no lawyer present for three weeks of interrogation and no taping of interviews, but also he was held for 10 months in solitary confinement for protesting his innocence. Most crucially for the defence, vital evidence was ignored, such as the activities and record of the travel companion.

In Japan, criminal cases have a 99% conviction rate. The judge who presided over the court that found Nick Baker guilty has not acquitted a single defendant in over 10 years. Prison conditions are extremely hard and are run with an elaborate system of punishments. Since his arrest over 3 years ago, Nick has not been allowed to make a phone call home; he is forced to sit cross legged on a concrete floor for endless hours and, due to the lack of heating, he suffers from frostbite to his fingers and feet.

At Nick's first appeal hearing in March 2004, the court translator was inaudible as she read through the defence argument; the judge instructed her stop before the end as the session had run out of time. In response to critical comments about this translator on the Justice for Nick Baker website, the Tokyo High Court informed Nick's legal team two days before the second hearing was due that the translator had 'resigned' and as there was no replacement, the second hearing would be cancelled.

At the appeal hearing in October 2004, the police officer who arrested Nick was cross-examined by the defence. In response to many specific questions from the defence, Officer Kawashima, who was in charge of the customs seizure and who signed the confiscation report replied "I don't remember" 46 times on the witness stand."

In December's appeal hearing it came to light that Nick is not allowed to keep his asthma inhaler in his cell, and so has to call for a guard every time he has an asthma attack, even if he can't breathe.

At that hearing, the translations at the original court hearings were also discussed, and during the course of this line of questioning that Judge Tao abruptly stopped proceedings. A Japanese professor of linguistics, who has taped all of the proceedings, has produced a report stating that the court's translation of Nick's evidence substantially deviated from what he said, and put him in a negative light.

At a press conference in January 2005, Nick’s lawyer Mr Miyake said he believed there was a 50-50 chance that Nick’s original sentence would be overturned. This would be a significant and long-overdue development in a criminal justice system that has a 99% conviction rate.

Iris Baker

For immediate release, 8June 2005
Contact Sarah Ludford MEP 44 (0) 7711 553587 or Zoe Mayne 0207 288 2526