Astonishment was expressed yesterday that a British football fan has been held in solitary confinement in Japan for more than two weeks for trying to sell a World Cup ticket for more than its face value.
The treatment of John Jones, a 43-year-old jeweller from London, was described by his Japanese
lawyer as a "very serious" violation of his human rights.
Mr Jones has been held without charge in a police station since he was arrested outside the Niigata stadium in northern Japan where Ireland were playing Cameroon on 1 June. He has admitted trying to sell a ticket worth NZ$207 for 20,000 yen (NZ$337), and to not carrying his passport. But the Niigata police continue to interrogate him, despite the apparent triviality of his offence and his poor health.
Mr Jones has been taken to hospital once and twice visited by a doctor after suffering from bleeding bowels while in custody. He has not been allowed to receive any visitors, other than his lawyers and British consular officials, and he has been locked in a small room without any exercise, allowed only two showers in more than two weeks, and repeatedly interrogated.
"The interviewing is very aggressive, intimidating and violent," he told a Japanese court, which agreed to extend his period of detention last Friday. "I cannot eat, I cannot sleep. I feel suicidal."
Yesterday his lawyer, Akira Takashima, told The Independent: "This is a very minor crime and the way the Japanese police have dealt with him is completely unjust. To my way of thinking, this is illegal. As a violation of human rights, it is very serious."
Tens of thousands of black market World Cup tickets have changed hands over the past two weeks in Japan and Korea, many of them under the noses of the Japanese police. Last Friday, when England beat Denmark at Niigata, the bullet train station was filled with people holding signs asking for tickets. The police made no efforts to discourage these transactions and no arrests were made.
Three other British men were arrested for ticket touting before England's game against Argentina in Sapporo on 7 June, but all were released without charge a week later and allowed to stay in Japan. Overall, the Japanese police have shown a practical and tolerant attitude to minor offences and lawyers in Japan are baffled by Mr Jones' treatment.
"If you ask me someone in Niigata got out of the wrong side of bed that morning," says a foreign lawyer, working in Japan. "I think they were disappointed that their cells were not overflowing with real hooligans and they had nothing better to do with themselves. It's madness."
- INDEPENDENT
Astonishment was expressed yesterday that a British football fan has been held in solitary confinement in Japan for more than two weeks for trying to sell a World Cup ticket for more than its face value.
The treatment of John Jones, a 43-year-old jeweller from London, was described by his Japanese
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.