Photo/Illutration Wishma Sandamali’s sister Poornima, second from left, speaks to reporters in Nagoya on Aug. 8 after filing a complaint with a citizens’ prosecution inquest panel in the city. (Akari Nakagawa)

NAGOYA--The family of a Sri Lankan woman who died while in detention is seeking a review of the decision by public prosecutors to not indict former officials over her death.

Wishma Sandamali’s family on Aug. 8 filed a complaint with a citizens’ prosecution inquest panel in Nagoya, asking it to review the decision to drop the case against senior officials from the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau.

“I have high hopes that the prosecution inquest panel, which is independent from public prosecutors, will make a reasonable decision by taking into account the malicious nature of this case,” Wishma’s sister Wayomi, 29, said at a news conference the same day.

Wishma, 33, died in March 2021 after her health deteriorated while she was in custody at an immigration facility run by the bureau.

In June, the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office dropped the case against the senior bureau officials in charge at the time, who the bereaved family alleges committed murder or negligence as a guardian resulting in death.

In the complaint, the family blamed immigration authorities for failing to provide proper medical treatment to Wishma, even after alarming results from her urinary test conducted 19 days before her death had revealed she was starving.

The family claims the prosecutors were “completely wrong” to drop the case, and that the failure of immigration authorities to offer Wishma medical care must be recognized.

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