The Tokyo High Court determined “not to invoke authority” over the request to suspend the procedure of public trial by the defense attorneys on August 19, 2005. “Not to invoke authority” in this case means not to handle the request by the defense team, i.e., to do nothing.
However, upon introductory remarks that the “declaration of the litigation capacity is unshakable”, the Court made an unprecedented assertion at the same time, “We are carefully considering to ask professionals of psychiatric medicine for an opinion on the presence of the defendant’s litigation capacity in the form of an expert opinion, in accordance with the stipulation on investigation of facts (from the document distributed by the 10th Criminal Division of Tokyo High Court on August 19).”
The introductory remarks that the “declaration is unshakable” obviously indicated that the Court was not expecting a respectable expert opinion. It was evident that the Court put pressure on the “expert witnesses” before the process of expert opinion began.
They might have only needed their favorite scholars who affirm claims by the Court, in order to silence psychiatrists’ opinions submitted by the defense attorneys one after another.
No comments:
Post a Comment