Photo/Illutration Wishma Sandamali’s sister Poornima speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Oct. 5. (Rei Kishitsu)

Relatives of a Sri Lankan woman who died in detention at an immigration facility in Nagoya earlier this year are set to bring a criminal complaint against senior immigration officials at the time in connection with her death.

A lawyer representing the sisters of the late Wishma Sandamali, 33, announced the plan to take legal action on Nov. 8.

“We have decided to file a criminal complaint out of hopes for prosecutors to respond to the case swiftly and strictly,” said Chie Komai, the sisters' lawyer.

The complaint is expected to be lodged with the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office as early as Nov. 9, targeting the then chief of the Immigration Services Agency’s Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau and other officials.

Sandamali died in March at the bureau’s detention facility after becoming seriously ill. She was taken into custody at the detention center in August 2020 after she overstayed her student visa.

Her sisters--Wayomi, 29, and Poornima, 27-- came to Japan in May to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.

Video footage of Sandamali taken at the detention center showed her repeatedly vomiting prior to her death as her health rapidly deteriorated.

Though the agency has acknowledged that the facility was not fully equipped to provide the medical care she needed, it has refused to release all its video footage of her despite the sisters’ repeated requests to do so.

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