Photo/Illutration A model is restrained by an imitated waist rope and a handcuff replica owned by the Osaka Bar Association. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A lawyers’ group is campaigning to end the degrading practice of criminal defendants being hauled into courtrooms placed in handcuffs and with ropes around their waists to stop them from fleeing.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations produced a dramatized video in which Takeyoshi Ota, vice chair of its Human Rights Protection Committee, played the role of a judge.

The material uploaded to YouTube at (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWUUxPftsZc) argues that the longstanding tradition of roping defendants could undermine the principle of presumption of innocence.

“No one wants to be exposed to public scorn like criminals, and their families never hope to see them being pilloried like that,” Ota said. “We are trying to show in an easy-to-understand manner that attention should be paid to defendants' mental anguish at being placed in such a situation.

“We are calling on judges to put their imagination to work to find an alternative.”

Prison guards are allowed to apply handcuffs and ropes to defendants for criminal trials to stop them from fleeing. While those accessories have to be removed during trials, defendants conventionally enter and leave courtrooms fully restrained.

In 2014, a defendant refused to appear before the Osaka District Court because he did not want to be seen handcuffed and roped in the courtroom.

The case proved to be the catalyst for lawyers pressing to change the custom.

The video, which runs for 7 minutes and 52 seconds, was created primarily by lawyers based in Osaka Prefecture with the help of a theatrical company.

In the video, a defendant arrested and indicted for “threatening” an acquaintance into paying off debt begs a guard to remove his handcuffs and rope outside the door to the courtroom. His request is refused and the defendant enters the courtroom restrained.

When his daughter seated in the observers’ section speaks to him, the man turns his face away.

In another scene, a man who is observing a trial for the first time assumes the defendant must be “a criminal” because he “walks like a dog” before the judge orders the restraints to be released.

According to the federation’s project team working on the issue of handcuffs and waist ropes, some courts set up screens to prevent judges and observers from seeing the restraints being removed.

Other courts allow observers in only after the restraints have been released. But such instances are still rare, according to the project team.

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