 |
| Wishma, who came to Japan in 2017 on a student visa, was taken to the facility in Nagoya in August 2020 after overstaying her visa. Wishma Sandamali’s sisters Poornima, center, and Wayomi, left, walk to the Nagoya District Court on June 8. (File photo by=Kazuhiro Nagashima) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana]
NAGOYA: Prosecutors on Friday dropped charges against 13 then senior officials of an immigration center in central Japan over the death of a Sri Lankan woman while in detention at the facility, Kyodo reported.
The Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office told the family of Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali that they could not say that the officials failed to provide her with appropriate medical care. Dissatisfied with the decision, her family said they plan to file a request with the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution to continue pressing for the criminal liability of the officials. The committee reviews decisions by the prosecutors. Last November, the family filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutors' office, accusing the officials of committing murder and failing to provide proper medical care to Wishma. The prosecutors have been investigating the case by interviewing the facility's staff members and analyzing related documents.
An official at the Immigration Services Agency of Japan declined to comment on the prosecutors' decision, saying they were not in a position to do so. The agency said in an investigative report issued in August last year that the immigration center staff lacked the ability to handle crises but that it could not determine the precise cause of Wishma's death.
