solidarity

The Sayama International Solidarity Campaign is calling on individuals and organizations to send in letters of solidarity in support of Kazuo Ishikawa and change in the Japanese criminal justice system, which allows for innocent people to be arrested and convicted on the basis of racial prejudice.

These letters will be made available online and given to the Sayama legal defense team as a symbol of solidarity, as they push for a retrial of the case, and as IMADR and related groups organize to end racial discrimination in the administration of justice in Japan.

Use the form below to submit a letter of solidarity. Thank you very much for your support.



(*will not be made public)

your letters

Message from Theo van Boven

To all concerned,

As a professor of law at the University of Maastricht (Netherlands), and as a former Special Rapporteur of the United Nations, I wish to express my full support for the Sayama International Solidarity Campaign and, in connection with the third appeal for the retrial of Mr. Ishikawa, I want to urge that the basic human rights principles of non-discrimination, due process and fair trial be faithfully and strictly respected.

Yours sincerely,
Theo van Boven
May 2006

Message from Dr. Chandra Muzaffar

The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) has been informed that the Supreme Court of Japan had, on 16 March 2005, dismissed the special appeal of the defence in the Sayama case. JUST is extremely disappointed with the decision. It shows that the Supreme Court has failed to rectify an obvious miscarriage of justice. Worse, it will be perceived as perpetuating an act of discrimination in Japanese society.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,
President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), Malaysia.
21 March 2005


Ishikawa being arrested in 1963.