Activities of the Lawyers' Network for Human Rights Monitoring around the G8 Summit 2008 (WATCH) in case of arrests and other police repressions

In
order to achieve this object, WATCH has published basic legal information
about the criminal procedure in Japan and other topics necessary for
activists to protect themselves against illegal repression.
Furthermore, WATCH will attend the demonstration in Sapporo on July 5th
and observe police behaviour, with the support of media activists record
cases of police repression, and publish these cases for the scrutiny of
international society.

As a basic principle, WATCH does not directly support people who have been
arrested. Also, WATCH does not collect comprehensive information about all
the arrestees and organise support for these people. If an activist from
abroad gets arrested, it is the task of the inviting group to organise
support for him/her. If there is no inviting group, WATCH will do the best
to give support, but please be forewarned that, due to lack of personnel,
WATCH is not able to offer support in every case.

If you get arrested, please ask for the so-called duty lawyer, in Japanese
tôban bengoshi. The duty lawyer is a lawyer provided by the local bar
association, and the first time she or he provides you with legal counsel
it is free of charge. You can imagine the duty lawyer as an emergency doctor
who gives you a first-aid treatment. You can call her or him just by
saying to the police at the police station that you want to see a duty
lawyer.
Then the police will contact the local bar association which will send a
duty lawyer to you. Also, your friends and supporters can call the local
bar
association to order a duty lawyer for you. The telephone numbers are
listed at the end of this text.
The duty lawyer interviews the arrested person in the absence of police
officers and listens to what the arrestee says, gives him/her explanation
about his/her rights and the legal procedure and he/she arranges
communication between the arrestee and the outside world. If you have
invitation groups or other groups who are in charge of taking care of you,
ask the duty lawyer to contact them on your behalf.

If you wish to have a legal support by a lawyer after your first interview
with the duty lawyer, you have to appoint the duty lawyer or any other
lawyer as a private defense lawyer and pay money. However, in certain
cases you can make use of financial aid. For details, please ask the duty
lawyer.

Duty lawyers are organised by the local bar associations. WATCH is not
linked with the duty lawyers. But some members of WATCH may also serve as
duty lawyers or as private defense lawyers.

Apart from WATCH, there is a private organisation called Kyûen Renraku
Center (“Support Contact Center”, tel. 03-3591-1301) which specializes in
organising support for arrested activists. If an activist from abroad gets
arrested, he/she can also demand at the police station for the police to
contact the Kyûen Renraku Center. Kyûen Renraku Center is in fact a
specialist in support activities. However, the support by the Kyûen Renraku
Center may be limited in Hokkaido owing to geographical reasons. Also,
from a linguistic point of view, it might be better for the international
activists to ask for a duty lawyer, because the local bar association is
more likely to be able to send you an interpreter along with the duty
lawyer.

Phone numbers for duty lawyers:

Sapporo 011-272-1010
Tokyo 03-3580-0082
Osaka 06-6363-0080

These phone numbers are meant for the friends and helpers who want to ask
for a duty lawyer for the arrestee. The arrestee him-/herself can just say
“Please call a duty lawyer” to the police officer at the police station.
It might be helpful to write “tôban bengoshi” on your arm before going to
a demonstration.