Decision not to indict over Sri Lanka detainee’s death unjust: panel

An independent judicial panel has decided prosecutors’ earlier decision not to indict officials at an immigration center in Nagoya over the 2021 death of a Sri Lankan detainee is unjust, paving the way for reinvestigation of the case, it said Monday.

A report published by the Kyodo News said: In a decision dated Wednesday, the citizens who form the committee for the inquest of prosecution in Nagoya concluded the prosecutors should reconsider whether they can charge officials at Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau, including the director at a time, for professional negligence resulting in the death of the Sri Lankan woman Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali.

As for allegations of murder of Wishma, who was 33 when she died, the panel said there is no evidence that would overturn the prosecutors’ decision not to bring charges.

Wishma, who was detained for overstaying her visa in 2020, died March 6 after complaining of ill health, including vomiting and stomachaches, from mid-January.

Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office, which investigated the case following a complaint filed by her family, decided in June not to prosecute 13 officers at the facility, including the director.

They said they could not reach a conclusion on the cause of death or establish a causal relationship between her treatment and her death.

Following the prosecutors’ decision, Wishma’s sisters filed a complaint in August with the judicial panel to seek a review of the prosecutors’ decision.

In filing the complaint, the sisters, Wayomi and Poornima, said it was clear that Wishma would have lived had the officials at the Nagoya immigration facility given her appropriate care.

Her death sparked national outrage over her treatment at the time, forcing the government a few months later to drop a bill revising rules on foreigners facing deportation, including asylum seekers.

Wishma arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student, but was taken into custody at the immigration facility in August 2020 for overstaying her visa after an earlier application for refugee status had been rejected.