ID :
196343
Thu, 07/21/2011 - 16:23
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https://oananews.org//node/196343
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Chinese skipper to be indicted by Japan over Senkaku collisions+
NAHA, Japan, July 21 Kyodo -
A judicial panel of Japanese citizens examining collisions between a Chinese trawler and two Japan Coast Guard vessels last year decided Thursday that the Chinese captain of the fishing boat should face mandatory indictment.
Japanese prosecutors had decided not to bring criminal charges against the 42-year-old skipper, Zhan Qixiong, in connection with the collisions near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea last September.
Even though Zhan will now be indicted by a lawyer acting as a prosecutor, he is extremely unlikely to stand trial because he has already returned to China. If the indictment cannot be served within two months, it will be invalidated.
The decision by the Naha committee for the inquest of prosecution is apparently the fifth case in the country in which mandatory indictment has been ordered since a relevant law was revised in May 2009.
Following a complaint filed by citizens, including a journalist in Chiba Prefecture, the independent 11-member panel decided in April that the captain's alleged involvement in the collisions merited indictment. In June, the panel reached a similar decision on other aspects of his alleged actions.
But later in June, the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to press charges against the skipper partly because it was thought unlikely he would be involved in similar incidents again.
That prompted the judicial panel to reexamine the case.
''It's regrettable that we couldn't gain (the panel's) understanding about our decision not to indict,'' said Nobutaka Hiramitsu, the deputy chief at the Naha prosecutors' office. ''It's the first time that (a suspect) has been abroad in this kind of case, so I expect difficulties ahead, including serving the indictment.''
The Japan Coast Guard arrested Zhan on Sept. 8, 2010, on suspicion of willfully ramming his trawler into one of the Japanese patrol boats, the Mizuki, in waters near the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.
The Japanese prosecutors freed the captain on Sept. 25, citing diplomatic considerations, and dropped the case in January this year.
Relations between Japan and China deteriorated after the coast guard arrested Zhan.
The skipper is suspected of obstructing Japanese public officers from performing their duties, damaging the patrol boats and violating a law that regulates fishing by foreigners.
==Kyodo
A judicial panel of Japanese citizens examining collisions between a Chinese trawler and two Japan Coast Guard vessels last year decided Thursday that the Chinese captain of the fishing boat should face mandatory indictment.
Japanese prosecutors had decided not to bring criminal charges against the 42-year-old skipper, Zhan Qixiong, in connection with the collisions near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea last September.
Even though Zhan will now be indicted by a lawyer acting as a prosecutor, he is extremely unlikely to stand trial because he has already returned to China. If the indictment cannot be served within two months, it will be invalidated.
The decision by the Naha committee for the inquest of prosecution is apparently the fifth case in the country in which mandatory indictment has been ordered since a relevant law was revised in May 2009.
Following a complaint filed by citizens, including a journalist in Chiba Prefecture, the independent 11-member panel decided in April that the captain's alleged involvement in the collisions merited indictment. In June, the panel reached a similar decision on other aspects of his alleged actions.
But later in June, the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to press charges against the skipper partly because it was thought unlikely he would be involved in similar incidents again.
That prompted the judicial panel to reexamine the case.
''It's regrettable that we couldn't gain (the panel's) understanding about our decision not to indict,'' said Nobutaka Hiramitsu, the deputy chief at the Naha prosecutors' office. ''It's the first time that (a suspect) has been abroad in this kind of case, so I expect difficulties ahead, including serving the indictment.''
The Japan Coast Guard arrested Zhan on Sept. 8, 2010, on suspicion of willfully ramming his trawler into one of the Japanese patrol boats, the Mizuki, in waters near the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islets controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.
The Japanese prosecutors freed the captain on Sept. 25, citing diplomatic considerations, and dropped the case in January this year.
Relations between Japan and China deteriorated after the coast guard arrested Zhan.
The skipper is suspected of obstructing Japanese public officers from performing their duties, damaging the patrol boats and violating a law that regulates fishing by foreigners.
==Kyodo
