Names of Japanese Prosecution Inquest Panel Leaked

Tokyo, June 26 (Jiji Press)–The names of the 11 members of a prosecution inquest panel in the city of Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, have been leaked, it was learned. Sources in the Yamaguchi District Public Prosecutors Office said Thursday that a document containing the names of the panel members was mistakenly sent to a petitioner. The prosecutors office has not announced the matter or collected the document although the names of prosecution inquest panel members should remain confidential. According to the prosecutors office and other sources, a party asked the Iwakuni inquest panel for an examination of a decision against indictment made the prosecutors office’s Iwakuni branch in a case. After the panel voted to approve the decision against indictment, the party filed criminal complaints against the 11 panel members on suspicion of abusing public officials’ authority while their names were unknown. The Iwakuni branch of the prosecutors office decided not to indict the 11 members in January and sent the party a document showing reasons for the decision without deleting their names from the paper. The prosecutors office became aware of the leak and apologized in March to the 11 individuals who served as members of the inquest panel. A prosecution inquest panel comprises 11 members selected by lot from eligible voters and examines whether prosecutors’ decisions against indictment were appropriate. The panel’s proceedings are closed to the public, and documents on its decisions do not include the names of the panel members. Shinnosuke Oki, deputy chief of the Yamaguchi prosecutors office, said Thursday that the Iwakuni branch’s handling of the case was “inappropriate in light of the aim of the prosecution inquest panel system.” “There was a lack of consideration for the principle that the names of inquest panel members should not be disclosed under the system,” he said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]