THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 13, 2017 at 18:55 JST
Hiroji Yamashiro (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The group said Hiroji Yamashiro, chairman of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center, had been wrongfully arrested and held for an unjustly long period in an attempt to “crush the protest movement.”
Yamashiro, 64, has been organizing rallies in the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, to protest the proposed relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, also in the prefecture.
“(The intention) is to make minor offenses appear to be bigger crimes by keeping activists in custody for a long time,” journalist Satoshi Kamata, one of the representatives of the group, told a news conference in Tokyo.
The Okinawa prefectural police denied the accusation, saying, “The actions were taken appropriately and accordingly to the law and evidence, and there is no such intention as 'to obstruct the anti-U.S. base movement.' ”
The group plans to submit a petition signed by about 16,000 supporters to the Naha District Court in Okinawa Prefecture at an early date to ask for the release of Yamashiro and other activists under detention.
The group's representatives include Makoto Sataka, a critic on economics and social issues, and Keiko Ochiai, a well-known female writer.
Yamashiro was arrested on Oct. 17 on suspicion of snipping barbed wire put up by the Okinawa Defense Bureau at two locations.
On Oct. 20, the Naha summary court rejected a police request to keep him in custody for a longer period, but on the evening of the same day, police arrested him for other alleged offenses including causing bodily injury.
After the rearrest, the Naha District Court remanded him to custody on the initial allegation of damaging property.
The prefectural police again arrested Yamashiro in November on suspicion of forcibly obstructing the business of the U.S. Marines in January 2016 by stacking concrete blocks in front of the gate of Camp Schwab in Nago, which is near the proposed relocation site.
(This article was written by Kentaro Koyama and Seinosuke Iwasaki.)
Release sought of anti-base protest leader in Okinawa：The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201701130076.html
Release sought of anti-base protest leader in Okinawa
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 13, 2017 at 18:55 JST
