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Police and prosecutors apologize to Ohkawara Kakohki after illegal probe
Tokyo police and public prosecutors on Friday apologized to the president of Ohkawara Kakohki, a former executive and others after a recent court ruling on a damages lawsuit found their investigations into the machinery-maker were illegal.
Tetsuro Kamata, deputy superintendent-general of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, and Hirohide Mori, head of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office's public security division, made the apology to President Masaaki Okawara, 76, and others, including Junji Shimada, 72, a former executive, in a meeting at the company's head office in Yokohama.
"We deeply apologize for the great stress and burdens we have caused," Kamata said. "We will do our best to prevent any recurrence," he added, bowing.
Mori said, "I apologize from the bottom of my heart."
In reply, Okawara underlined the need to fully examine the case that hit his company and make sure that similar incidents never happen again.
The bereaved family of Shizuo Aishima, a former executive who was diagnosed with stomach cancer while in detention and later died, did not attend the meeting.
The family said it cannot accept an apology at this time.
A lawyer for the company submitted a written request that called for including a third party in a probe of the illegal investigations by the MPD and the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office.
In March 2020, the MPD's Public Security Bureau arrested Okawara and two other company executives, alleging that the company exported without permission a spray dryer that could be repurposed for weapons production.
In July 2021, the district public prosecutor's office dropped the charges against them, just before the first criminal court hearing on the case.
The president and others later filed the damages lawsuit against the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the state on the grounds that the authorities' investigations were unreasonable. Active police officers involved in the investigations testified that the case was a "fabrication."
On May 28 this year, the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling that found the arrests and the indictment illegal, ordering the state and the metropolitan government to pay a total of ¥166 million in damages.
On June 11, the MPD and the prosecutors office said they would not appeal the high court ruling and indicated plans to apologize directly to the company.
