Videos Played at Tokyo Court over Alleged Improper Interrogations

Tokyo, Aug. 10 (Jiji Press)–Video clips of interrogations were played at Tokyo District Court on Monday in a damages lawsuit against the government for alleged improper interrogations filed by a company president indicted for fraud. Litigant Naoyuki Ikuta, 52, the head of a Tokyo-based solar power company, is claiming 11 million yen in damages. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the fraud and has appealed the sentence. In the damages suit, the state side submitted all interrogation video data as evidence to the district court. Last month, the court decided to play 58 scenes from the footage, totaling about an hour and 10 minutes, in the courtroom. The clips showed Hiroshi Horiki, who had been a member of the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, asking Ikuta, who had remained silent, “Are you really sure you want to keep quiet?” and “Don’t you think you’re going to regret this?” Horiki, now 58, also told the president, “If you view the prosecutors office as an enemy, you are part of an antisocial group.” The videos also included a scene of the two arguing. When the president said, “I really can’t say anything,” Horiki responded: “You haven’t said anything at all. Are you saying I haven’t been asking you for 39 days?” A loud voice then followed, “Don’t blame others for your silence!” According to the letter of complaint, Ikuta was interrogated by the prosecutor for 41 days in a row, for about 205 hours in total, between May and July 2021, after he was arrested and detained by the special investigation squad. The president’s team claims that his right to remain silent and his personal rights were infringed. The state side has argued that the interrogations did not go beyond what is considered reasonable under social norms. Over the interrogations, Tokyo District Court in June confirmed Ikuta’s request for a criminal trial of the prosecutor for alleged assault and cruelty by a special public servant. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]