Photo/Illutration A dead Vietnamese technical intern trainee lived in the apartment at left in Toyama city. (Satoshi Tazoe)

In a rare ruling, the Supreme Court rebuked investigative procedures by Toyama prefectural police as illegal and rejected a request by local prosecutors for additional detention time to question a murder suspect.

The Toyama District Court had earlier upheld a ruling by the Toyama Summary Court denying a request by the Toyama District Public Prosecutors Office for extending the detention of Ngo Cong Minh, 20, a technical intern trainee from Vietnam.

He was being questioned in connection with the death of Nguyen Van Duc, 21, another Vietnamese intern. 

Police found Duc’s body on May 5 near the apartment where he lived.

Police questioned Minh, who lived in the same apartment. They had him stay at a designated hotel between May 6 until May 10 while they searched the apartment.

Police escorted Minh to and from the hotel for daily questioning at the police station, which often lasted for about 10 hours, including breaks. Police accompanied Minh during the breaks and others were posted in front of his hotel room when he returned there.

Police escorted him when he had to withdraw money to pay for the lodging.

On May 11, Toyama prefectural police arrested Minh on suspicion of abandoning Duc’s body. On May 27, police re-arrested him on suspicion of murder

When Toyama prosecutors asked for a detention extension to investigate the murder, the summary and district courts both rejected the request. The courts said the constant supervision of Minh by police was equivalent to an arrest since he could not decline to answer questions with the police constantly by his side.

At the same time, Minh remains in detention after he was indicted for abandoning Duc’s body.

The suspect’s lawyer had also asked the Supreme Court to overturn the order by the local judge to continue the detention for the indictment, but the Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court rejected that part of the appeal.

The local court ruled the detention was not for an investigation, but to have the suspect appear in court for the indictment charge. Toyama prefectural police are continuing with voluntary questioning of the suspect in connection with the alleged murder.

Takaki Arisawa, the suspect’s lawyer, issued a statement praising the ruling criticizing the investigation as illegal, saying it was important for protecting the rights of the suspect and to restrain illegal investigations.

But Arisawa also criticized the striking down of the request to end detention for the indictment, saying it could end up allowing for an illegal investigation.

Both Toyama prefectural police and local public prosecutors office declined to comment.

(This article was written by Shunsuke Abe and Kazuhiro Takeda.)