At the trial of prosecutor Daisuke Tabuchi (54), who was accused of assaulting and abusing special public servants after saying things like ``I don't care for the prosecution'' during the interrogation of a case handled by the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's Special Investigation Department, the defense attorney for the defendant, who is pleading not guilty, revealed the contents of their argument in their opening statement on the 6th. The full text is as follows (the names of the people are their real names in the original text, but there are some parts that have been anonymized at the discretion of the Asahi Shimbun).
Introduction
``Don't blame the prosecutor.'' ``You are a major criminal who has ruined the reputation of Pressance.''
During the interrogation on December 8th and 9th, 2019, Prosecutor Tabuchi made the following statement to the suspect, Mr. A (hereinafter referred to as "Mr. A"): The situation is as shown in the audio and video recording media recording the interrogation situation at the second trial of this case.
The scene shown in the video is suitably shocking. I'm sure many people who watched this video thought, ``Such behavior could occur during an interrogation by a prosecutor, and in a situation where the person was being videotaped and recorded.''
If Mr. A, who was being interrogated, had claimed that he was forced to give a statement to Prosecutor Tabuchi because he felt distressed, and had changed his statement after the fact, the voluntariness of the record might have been denied. If Mr. A filed a lawsuit demanding compensation from the state, it might have been found to be illegal.
However, the issue at stake in this case is neither a criminal procedure law nor a state compensation law issue. The question in this case is whether prosecutor Tabuchi's words and actions can be considered to be an act of ``insult or abuse'' as defined in Article 195, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code, ``Special public servant assault, abuse, and cruelty.'' This court must rigorously examine whether the words and actions of Prosecutor Tabuchi in this case are applicable to criminal law crimes, which require a certain degree of humility and strict interpretation under the principle of criminal law.
In such cases, decisions should not be made solely based on the impact of a portion of the footage. First, we must reconsider what kind of acts are meant by "insult or abuse" as defined in Article 195, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code.
In addition, the process by which Prosecutor Tabuchi's words and actions were carried out and what his intentions were, as well as how Mr. A perceived these words and actions, will also be important determining factors.
After such a rigorous examination, it becomes clear that Prosecutor Tabuchi's words and actions cannot constitute acts of ``insult or abuse'', that is, acts of ``torture.'' Therefore, Prosecutor Tabuchi is innocent.
Prosecutor Tabuchi's career
After graduating from Chuo University, Prosecutor Tabuchi passed the bar exam in 1997 and was appointed as a public prosecutor in April 2000. After that, as I was transferred around the country as a prosecutor, I was assigned to the special investigation department at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office. Then, in April 2019, while I was assigned to the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation department, I joined the investigation as a support prosecutor for a case of embezzlement involving a school corporation.
Prosecutor Tabuchi has been in charge of investigating various cases and interrogating suspects and related parties while working as a prosecutor to this day. Prosecutor Tabuchi has carried out his duties with the belief that, even though there may be differences in their positions, it is important to treat the person being interrogated as a human being and to listen carefully to what they have to say.In particular, even if there is a case to harshly pursue a suspect who denies it, it is important to fully listen to their excuses, question inconsistencies with objective evidence, and make sure that the suspect understands that his own arguments are unreasonable.
Furthermore, throughout his career, prosecutor Tabuchi has never had the voluntariness of the records he created challenged in any subsequent criminal trial.
■Process leading up to this investigation...
