About a month after the appeal trial
began, our father’s defense attorney visited the Tokyo Detention House two to
three times a week and continued to request a meeting with our father. However, our father was never brought to the
interview room.
On June 8, 2004, Attorney Matsushita, a
friend of Attorney Matsui, also accepted our father’s defense.
The defense attorneys were at a loss as
they were never successful to meet our father.
They were unable to confirm our father’s intention. They did not even know whether or not he
wanted to appeal. They were in anguish,
wondering if they should begin a trial without knowing the intention of the
person in question.
It seems that the Court was also
troubled as they hoped the defense attorneys to submit the statement of reasons
for appeal (document stating the reasons of appeal) as soon as possible, even
though they claimed it impossible to write the statement of reasons for appeal
without meeting the person in question.
Based on the flow of communication between the defense attorneys and the
Court at that time, the Tokyo Detention House might have received some kind of
pressure about visitation privileges and our father suddenly began to be
brought to the interview room.
We heard it was on July 29 when defense
attorneys were able to meet our father for the first time.
The Detention House refused the defense
attorneys’ request of visitation more than 36 times since they began to request
visitation on April 4., i.e., five long months after appeal.
