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Prosecutors in Japan will not press charges over the case of a Ghanaian man who died as he was being restrained by up to 10 immigration officials as they tried to deport him, media have reported.
Abubakar Awudu Suraj, 45, died at Tokyo’s Narita airport in March 2010 as he was being bundled aboard a plane bound for Cairo.
Suraj’s Japanese widow filed a complaint with police, challenging authorities to explain exactly how her husband died as he was being deported for illegally staying in Japan.
Police said earlier that “the immigration officials restrained the man who had wildly resisted”.
Rights activists have claimed he was gagged with a towel, recalling a similar but non-fatal case in 2004 when a female Vietnamese deportee was handcuffed, had her mouth sealed with tape and was rolled up in blankets.
His widow told reporters Wednesday that prosecutors ordered the man’s heart be retained for forensic analysis, but had not initially informed her of the decision, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.
They had also said her late husband may have died as a result of a heart condition, the paper said.
Japan keeps a tight control on immigration and in 2011, despite its generous overseas aid for refugees, granted political asylum to only 21 people.
Human rights activists, lawyers and migrant communities have complained for years about the harsh treatment meted out by immigration officials and about conditions at detention centers.
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