“The Abe Administration has twisted the
decision of the Supreme Court on the Sunagawa Incident to use it as a legal
basis of the undemocratic 2015 Military Legislation. A retrial is likely to
seriously damage the administration, so I feel political intentions behind the
High Court’s decision”. (TSUCHIYA Gentaro)
“I have been involved in this struggle for
60 years. This is against war and for peace and the Constitution. The High
Court’s heartless decision is totally unacceptable”. (MUTO Gun-ichiro)
The Sunagawa Incident court case was over
which is superior – the Japan-US Security Treaty or the Japanese Constitution.
This is also related to the current problems over US military bases in Okinawa.
In 1959, the Tokyo District Court handed down a not guilty verdict to the
defendants, saying that the stationing of the US Military in Japan is
unconstitutional, but later, the Tokyo High Court overturned the verdict and
decided they were guilty. However, an official document has revealed that the
US Government directly pressed the Chief Justice of Japan’s Supreme Court at
that time during the court case. Based on the new evidence, the four former
defendants including Tsuchiya and Muto filed a petition for retrial, which was
rejected at the Tokyo High Court on November 15, following the same decision by
the Tokyo District Court. Both decisions never referred to the new evidence. The
four are going to make a special appeal to the Supreme Court and continue their
struggle. (M)
cf. Sunagawa Struggle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunagawa_Struggle
83歳の元被告が怒りの会見〜砂川事件再審請求を東京高裁が棄却
「安倍政権は砂川事件最高裁判決を曲解して安保法制の法的根拠にしてきた。再審決定すると政権には大問題になる。だから今回の決定には政治的意図を感じる」（土屋源太郎/右）、「60年間一生をかけて闘ってきた。これは戦争と平和、憲法を守る問題だ。こんな血の通わない文章で切り捨てる裁判所を許せない」（武藤軍一郎/左）。安保条約と憲法のどちらが上かを争った「砂川事件裁判」。今の沖縄基地問題に直結するものだ。1959年の東京地裁の伊達判決は、「米軍駐留を憲法違反として」被告を無罪としたが、同年12月最高裁は逆転判決で有罪を下した。しかしこの過程で、米政府が直接最高裁長官に圧力をかけたことが公文書で明らかになっている。これを新証拠に元被告の土屋、武藤さんら4人が再審請求をしていたが、11月15日、東京地裁に続いて東京高裁でも棄却された。内容は新証拠に触れることなく法律解釈だけの門前払い。請求人らは最高裁に「特別抗告」して闘いを継続する方針だ。（M）
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