Photo/Illutration Lawyers representing a condemned inmate speak to reporters on Jan. 10 in Hiroshima, arguing that their client has no privacy under continuous video monitoring in his prison cell. (Yuhei Kyono)

HIROSHIMA--A death row inmate here filed a lawsuit against the state for violation of privacy, claiming that he has been held in a cell equipped with a surveillance camera for more than 16 years.

“I have endured it, thinking that I had to because I was a death row inmate, but I believe that there should be a minimum level of privacy for a human being,” Shozo Nishiyama, 70, said in a statement submitted to the Hiroshima District Court, which held the first hearing in the case on Jan. 10.

Nishiyama also argued that he had no intention of committing suicide or trying to escape from the prison. He is seeking 21.12 million yen ($145,000) from the state. 

The defendant is seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit.

Convicted of murder and robbery, Nishiyama’s death sentence was finalized in May 2007.

Since then, he has been confined to a solitary cell of 4 square meters with a surveillance camera installed near the center of the ceiling, which is about 3 meters high, in the Hiroshima Detention House, according to the lawsuit.

The camera monitors the inmate’s every move, including changing clothes and using the toilet.

“Detention of a condemned inmate is not part of his punishment,” Honen Kubo, head of Nishiyama’s legal team, told reporters on the same day.

“Death row inmates should be entitled to the same dignity as any other person unless they intend to commit suicide or escape,” he added.

According to the Hiroshima Detention House, based on its regulations, death row inmates who are considered at risk of suicide or escape may be placed in a cell with a monitoring camera whenever deemed necessary.

Officials of the facility declined to comment on Nishiyama’s claim, saying the case is still ongoing.

A similar lawsuit was filed in 2022 by a death row inmate held at the Tokyo Detention House, who claimed he had been under continuous video surveillance for more than 14 years.

In another case, the Kumamoto District Court ruled in 2018 that the Kumamoto Prison had illegally put an inmate in a cell with a monitoring camera.

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