Prosecutors to try audiovisual recording of interrogations from March

TOKYO (Kyodo) - The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office said Wednesday that prosecutors in charge of criminal investigations in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya will start audiovisual recording of interrogations on a trial basis in March.
The move comes as part of efforts to reform the prosecution system after an evidence tampering scandal involving senior Osaka prosecutors last year, and will be reported Thursday to a Justice Ministry panel studying the reform, but may be deemed insufficient by panelists seeking complete transparency.
While prosecutors currently tape when they read to suspects records of their confessions in serious crimes that are subject to lay judge trials, the measure to start March 18 broadens the coverage to interrogations of suspects arrested by prosecutors through their own investigations.
It is aimed at proving that suspects' statements were made voluntarily and are credible, the top prosecutors office said, but allows prosecutors involved to choose what to ''visualize'' through taping or videotaping and will exempt suspects who refuse to have their interrogations taped.
In the scandal, a member of the investigative squad at the Osaka district office and his two bosses have been indicted over evidence tampering and cover-up of his act in the course of their investigation into an alleged abuse of the postal discount system involving Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry officials.
Atsuko Muraki, a former senior ministry official who was acquitted in the case, has complained that the investigation had been carried out in a manner completely in disregard of facts.