Decision likely next week on Coast Guard member over video leak+

TOKYO, Nov. 12 Kyodo -
Investigative authorities plan to decide possibly early next week on whether to
arrest a Japan Coast Guard member over the online posting of a video of the
collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats near the
disputed Senkaku Islands, investigative sources said Friday.
The sources also said the 43-year-old chief navigator of the patrol boat
Uranami of the Kobe Coast Guard Office may have obtained the video from a
personal computer on the vessel.
As the voluntary questioning of the maritime police officer extended into the
third consecutive day Friday, the authorities have begun considering letting
him go home over the weekend.
The authorities plan to decide soon after the weekend on whether to arrest him
or send papers on him to prosecutors, according to the sources. He is being
questioned on suspicion of breaching confidentiality.
Meanwhile, investigators have been dispatched to the Japan Coast Guard Academy
in Hiroshima Prefecture to find out how the video may have spread within the
maritime police organization because the collision video on the Uranami is
likely to have originated from the officers' school.
The Coast Guard member was quoted as telling investigators that he watched and
obtained the video on the vessel, according to the sources. Traces have been
found on the computer on the boat that indicate the footage was saved onto a
data storage device, they said.
The footage, uploaded on a popular video-sharing website last week but quickly
deleted after it drew panicky reactions, shows scenes of the Chinese trawler
ramming into the Japan Coast Guard patrol boats. The government had been
withholding the material from the public.
The sources said the data was sent to the academy via the 11th Regional Coast
Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, after it was edited for
training. A shared folder on a terminal at the school was apparently accessible
from the computer on the Uranami.
The Coast Guard member has told investigators that he obtained the video
between late September and early October by saving it onto a USB data storage
device and that he destroyed and threw it away on his way home after posting
its clips on YouTube at an Internet cafe in Kobe, the sources said.
According to the sources, the Coast Guard member said also that he wanted to
inform the public about the collision incident and that before uploading the
video, he practiced posting clips online by using other footage at his home.
The collisions occurred in the East China Sea on Sept. 7. A set of six clips
showing the incident appeared on the website on Nov. 4 and were deleted the
following day, though copies have been widely available on the Internet.
As the questioning continued ostensibly on a voluntary basis, the navigator's
lawyer, Hajime Takagi, raised questions about his treatment, urging prosecutors
to decide immediately on whether to arrest him or continue to question him on a
voluntary basis.
''It is abnormal that the official has been questioned under de facto arrest,''
Takagi said Friday. ''I have to think about ways to ensure his safety (from the
media) if he is not going to be arrested, so I expect them to make a decision
immediately.''
Questions also linger about whether the online posting would violate the
National Public Service Law, which prohibits public servants from divulging
knowledge obtained through work, because much about the incident had already
become public knowledge by then.
Coast Guard members at the Ishigaki office in Okinawa Prefecture videotaped the
collisions in the East China Sea. The arrest and detention of the fishing
boat's Chinese captain after the incident led to a diplomatic row between Japan
and China.
Despite calls from opposition parties for the video's release, the government
has withheld it from the public, apparently out of concern not to provoke
China.
The Senkaku Islands are administered by Japan but claimed by China.
==Kyodo
2010-11-12 23:50:26