Sting Found as Illegal

Japanese police may not only arrest criminals but create them. Sapporo Regional Court on Thursday approved a petition of retrial, submitted by a Russian man who had been arrested with charge of violation against Sword and Fire Arms Control Law, sentenced guilty and detained for two years. The court recognized that the investigation by Hokkaido Police Office was an illegal sting. The police are suspected to have concealed their systematically secret operation and vested infamy on an innocent foreigner.

The petitioner is former Russian sailor staying in Hokkaido in 1997. When he was looking for Used Japanese car to buy, which could be sold with high price in Russia, a Pakistani car dealer approached him and offered a deal of exchanging Nissan Safari, worthy of $10 thousand, with a gun. The Russian thought it was a great deal and then brought from his home in Russia a pistol presented by his passed father. When he arrived Japan again with the gun, the police arrested him with suspect of illegal possession of a firearm.

The Pakistani man was a secret agent for the police. A lieutenant of Hokkaido Police Office requested him to let the Russian sailor anyhow bring a gun. After the lieutenant was arrested with charge of violation of Narcotics Control Law years later, there rose suspicion about the way the police had been employing for gun control. Even after the Supreme Court decided that he was guilty, the Russian man kept on requesting review of the case.

Sapporo Regional Court found that the police encouraged a man with no intention of committing a crime to introduce a pistol to Japan, and fire arms provision section in the police office concealed the secret operation, sharing a fictitious story. “He was no relationship with fire arms crime. But, the state that should deter crimes created new gun crime by itself and threatened people’s life and safety,” said the court.

It is said that there was a heavy requirement for eliminating gun crime inside police organization. Each policeman has been demanded by his supervisors to make any achievement they could. His colleagues would be supportive for false investigation to pretend being diligent in their job. The police would be a monster of hunting innocent people. The Russian man was a victim of such a bureaucracy.

The Russian man, having experienced two years in Japanese prison and now living in Ukraine, was reportedly delighted with the decision. “I mostly hope the truth to be found,” commented him to Japanese newspaper. Since similar cases can have made in various scenes of police investigation, the decision may become a momentum for reviewing excessive behavior of the police.