Japan Police to Face Interrogation Rules

Source: Associated Press

Jan 24, 3:52 AM EST
Japan Police to Face Interrogation Rules

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press Writer

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's national police, facing allegations that officers regularly squeeze confessions from suspects with abuse, issued guidelines for the first time Thursday setting limits on how far they can go in questioning sessions.

The rules, contained in a 10-page report, follow recent high-profile cases that uncovered heavy-handed police tactics. One innocent man served two years in prison for rape after police pressured him into falsely confessing.

Despite the national attention, many of the new guidelines were basic: during questioning, police cannot touch suspects, threaten them, keep them in a fixed posture, verbally abuse them or offer them favors in return for expressions of guilt.

The rules took aim at a favorite police method: the lengthy questioning session. Police will now be limited to eight hours at a time, and overnight interrogations - aimed at breaking the suspect with exhaustion - were banned.




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where we do "touch suspects, threaten them, keep them in a fixed posture, verbally abuse them..." amongst other, more nastier forms of torture.