Hokkaido government ordered to compensate former Russian sailor over sting operation

Hokkaido government ordered to compensate former Russian sailor over sting operation
(Mainichi Japan) March 20, 2010
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100320p2a00m0na011000c.html

SAPPORO -- The Sapporo District Court ordered the Hokkaido Prefectural Government on Friday to pay a former Russian sailor 500,000 yen for causing him emotional distress in connection with a 1997 undercover sting operation.

The 40-year-old Russian had sought damages totaling 23.1 million yen from the national and prefectural governments for emotional distress caused by his arrest and imprisonment for gun possession after a sting operation and false evidence given by investigators in his court proceedings.

According to the sentence, in November 1997, the Russian man was approached by a Pakistani man who offered to exchange a used car for a gun. When the plaintiff tried to hand off the gun at Otaru port in the Hokkaido city of Otaru, he was arrested by Hokkaido police investigators.

In a criminal lawsuit over the case, the Russian man insisted on his innocence, claiming that the investigation had been a case of illegal entrapment. Yoshiaki Inaba, 56, a former Hokkaido prefectural police inspector who is now serving time for drug violations and other crimes, falsely testified that the Pakistani man had not been at the scene of the incident. The Russian man ended up serving two years in prison.

A major point of contention in the case was the legality of the sting operation. The plaintiff argued that it was a case of illegal entrapment provoking criminal intent. Presiding Judge Ikujiro Nakayama stated, however, that it seemed likely that the plaintiff was accustomed to gun deals, that the possibility that he is involved with the mafia cannot be completely eliminated, and that there remain suspicions that he intended to bring guns into Japan even without the deal with the Pakistani man, concluding that the investigation could not be considered a case of illegal entrapment.

Meanwhile, the judge said that false testimony affected the Russian man's prison sentence in no insignificant terms, recognizing the emotional distress he suffered.

The plaintiff plans to appeal.