Nicholas John Baker

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Nick Baker

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Nick Baker is a British citizen, raised in Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom. A professional chef and father of a 3-year old child, he was arrested in Japan on April 13 2002 at the age of 32, for violating the Narcotic and Psychotropic Drug Control Law and Customs Law when drugs were found in false compartments of a suitcase upon his arrival at Narita Airport near Tokyo.

Baker has consistently maintained he was set up by his traveling companion, James Prunier, whom he became friendly with after meeting 2-3 years previously at a local football club. Baker claimed he and Prunier were separated at the time of disembarkation. Baker said when he arrived at the airport arrivals baggage carousel, Prunier was already holding his own suitcase and asked Baker to take it and secure a place in the customs queue, and he would collect Baker's blue sports bag when it came round and join him.

Baker however was left to go through the customs inspection alone, and the suitcase he was holding was found to contain 41,120 ecstasy tablets together with 992.5 grams of cocaine, then the largest ever walk-through seizure of ecstasy at Narita. Baker was detained.

Prunier meanwhile passed through customs on his own. Japanese authorities claimed to have tracked but not questioned Prunier, who left the country two days later, well ahead of his scheduled departure date. Some three months after this, Prunier was arrested in Belgium and charged there with smuggling ecstasy while traveling with three other young British people.

In June 2003, Baker was sentenced by Judge Kenji Kadoya at the Chiba District Court to 14 years in prison with forced labour and assessed a ¥5,000,000 fine. He appealed the ruling, but on October 27 2005, High Court presiding Judge Kenjiro Tao upheld the guilty verdict, ruling that Baker was aware of the contents of the case. However, the judge reduced the sentence, saying "Baker does not seem to be the mastermind, and his parents have been worried about him". Baker's term was reduced from 14 years to 11 years and his fine was reduced from ¥5,000,000 (approx.£24,392) to ¥3,000,000 (approx.£14,635). Baker was awarded time served of 1,172 days against the sentence, excluding a percentage of time held in remand during the District Court trial.

In November 2005, three years and seven months after he arrived at Narita, Baker elected not to appeal to Japan's Supreme Court, and was transferred to Fuchu Prison to begin serving his sentence.

The Chiba District Court Trial

What the Prosecution Argued

Baker claimed he had come to Japan as he was interested in the World Cup stadiums, yet he could not provide investigators with accurate names and locations of the stadiums.
Baker was carrying the bag which contained the drugs when he was arrested and they were therefore his responsibility. Baker also checked the bag in his own name before boarding the flight to Japan.
Baker's statements inferred that he was approached in Brussels by Prunier's associates, two smugglers, and was threatened. In light of this, he would not have proceeded to Japan if he were an unwitting dupe.
Even if the bag containing the drugs did not belong to Baker, it is implausible that he would not know about the presence of the drugs given the closeness of his relationship with Prunier, a friend of some time standing.
The fact that Baker had previously been to Japan, in February of 2002, suggested he was involved in a smuggling ring.
Baker owed money in the United Kingdom.
According to customs officials, Baker had the key to the suitcase in his possession and behaved suspiciously when the suitcase was X-rayed.
There were inconsistencies in the statements Baker made to customs officials and investigators over the course of his detainment at Narita and a nearby detention center.

What the Defence argued

Due to Baker's thick accent his statements to investigating authorities were either misunderstood or were mistranslated by poorly-qualified interpreters, and that is why they appeared inconsistent.
All of Baker's signed statements used against him in court were written only in Japanese, a language he does not speak or read. The cursory verbal translation by police interpreters was poor and misleading -- Baker was told he was incriminating Prunier by signing the statements when he was actually incriminated himself.
Prunier's later arrest in Belgium on smuggling charges was germane because it supported Baker's story, and therefore the facts of that case should be brought in as evidence in Baker's trial.
The money Baker owed was on a mortgage on his home and with the equity Baker had, and the successful construction and catering business he ran, he had an above-average income and therefore no reason to engage in a risky drug smuggling venture. His tax returns should be admitted as evidence to support this.

The Chiba District Court Verdict

District Court Presiding Judge Kenji Kadoya refused to admit the Belgian evidence, arguing that it was unnatural to assume that Prunier would have given Baker a key to the suitcase if Baker didn't know the drugs were inside it. The court also refused to enter Baker's tax returns as evidence, arguing that they could be forgeries. The verdict was essentially a full endorsement of the prosecution's case, with some passages of the Judges' statement reproducing the prosecution's arguments verbatim.

Justice for Nick Baker Campaign

Soon after the District Court verdict was handed down, in the summer of 2003, an awareness campaign was launched by Baker's mother, Iris. The campaign focused on three main issues:

Baker's treatment from the time of his arrest, specifically that he had been interrogated for 23 days without counsel present; that he had been made to sign a confession in a language he did not understand; and arguing that quality of the interpreters through the trial had been poor.
The court's refusal to admit defence evidence.
The fact that Presiding Judge Kenji Kadoya had a 100% conviction rate -- never once in his more than 10 years on the bench had Kadoya found a defendant "not guilty."

An international network of supporters and activists attracted substantial media attention worldwide, prompting regular coverage of the case. A petition was launched to urge British Prime Minister Tony Blair to "use all the influence your good office can muster to secure Baker's right to a trial which follows internationally accepted standards." This was signed by more than 5,000 people; about half of the signatures coming from drives held in the UK, the other half from an online version hosted by the nonpartisan organization The Petition Site. Iris Baker along with Member of European Parliament The Baroness Sarah Ludford presented the petition to Mr. Blair's representatives at 10 Downing Street, and Iris Baker later presented the petition to the Tokyo High Court.

Baker's supporters launched Justice For Nick Baker, an advocacy website, to further speed awareness. The campaign called on concerned people to contact the Japanese and British embassies in their countries to demand fair and just treatment for Baker and other detainees in Japan. In this sense the Justice for Nick Baker website was probably the most high-profile international challenge ever against Japan's legal system and its 99.97% conviction rate. The campaign did not argue on the question of guilt or innocence, rather it asserted that Baker had not received a fair trial at the District Court, and strove to focus international attention on the upcoming High Court appeal.

During the appeal, the website posted visitor logs which showed regular monitoring by the Japanese Ministry of Justice, and administrators claimed to have received a warning from the High Court (delivered by e-mail via Baker's lawyer Shunji Miyake) demanding that criticism of the court interpreter be removed from the site. After the site posted its refusal to do so, the High Court suddenly announced a delay in the appeal.

The Tokyo High Court Appeal

The High Court Appeal began March 23, 2004 and ended on October 27, 2005, during which time the court convened 11 times for a total of about 18 hours. During the course of the trial the translator was changed, as was the prosecutor and one of the three judges.

This was an appeal by the Defence, and under Japanese legal protocol they were charged with arguing that there had been flaws in the District Court trial. Baker’s defence team based their appeal upon the following specific legal definitions: "Factual errors affecting the trial (criminal trial law article 382), violation of trial procedures (article 379), and unjust punishment (article 381)."

The Defence argued that:

There was collusion between prosecutors and customs investigation officers as the initial customs officers report, filed on the day of Baker's arrest, made no mention the question of the key to the suitcase. Three weeks later the same customs officer resubmitted the report with several lines added, which claimed had seen Baker throw the key into the case. During the District Court trial, the officer changed his story to claim he had "seen something fly through the air, but hadn't seen Baker's hand throw anything." Evidence from a photographic expert commissioned by the defence, was submitted which the defence said showed the key enclosed in a zipped shut net pouch within the suitcase. On October 12, 2005, Customs Officer Kawashima was called to the witness stand. He replied to Defence questions with the phrase "I don't remember" more than 40 times before he was dismissed by the judge.

A clear pattern was shown to emerge, through analysis of Baker's statements, of coercion by investigators. Baker has constantly insisted that he was told that if he signed their Japanese-language statements, he would be allowed to return home to his family. This is reflected in the sudden change in his story on April 24th, some 11 days after his arrest, after which every single statement concluded with his "earnest desire to co-operate with the investigation and be sent home at the earliest opportunity."

While the District Court’s view that Baker having traveled to Japan previously suggested that he was likely involved in drug-smuggling, “it is hardly necessary to provide evidence of people who are frequent overseas travelers but not narcotics smugglers.”

According to the testimony given by Customs Officer Kawashima, “the defendant did not act suspiciously until an x-ray revealed suspicious items in the suitcase." His reactions suggest that the defendant was surprised by the appearance of these objects in the case and therefore unaware that illegal narcotics were concealed until the x-ray monitor revealed them.

There were serious inconsistencies in the confiscation report made at the time of Baker's detainment -- it was not clear whether the key for the suitcase had been in Baker's pocket or waist bag as the prosecution said, or in the suitcase itself, as Nick maintained. Pointing to discrepancies in font, style and type of paper, the defence claimed that the confiscation record had been altered.

Regarding Baker's "confession," it was argued that the Japanese-language statement Baker affixed his thumbprint to after some three weeks of interrogation was not accurately translated to him and so should not have been admissible, as doing so violated article 38 of the Japanese Constitution: "No person shall be compelled to testify against himself. 2) Confession made under compulsion, torture or threat, or after prolonged arrest or detention shall not be admitted in evidence. 3) No person shall be convicted or punished in cases where the only proof against him is his own confession."

After Prunier was arrested with other young British travelers in Belgium, that information should have been admitted as evidence by the District Court in accordance with guarantees in the Japanese Constitution for international compliance, as it supported Baker's standing claim that he had also been duped by Prunier. Regarding assumptions made by the District Court regarding Baker's financial state, it his tax returns should have been admitted for the same reasons.

Judge Kadoya "selectively and arbitrarily analyzed" evidence.

The High Court Verdict

Although the sentence and fine were reduced, the High Court did not accept any of the Defence arguments.

Reaction to the Case

The case attracted a great deal of attention and controversy. Some of the reactions:

Nick Baker

In November 2005, Baker announced he would not appeal the high court ruling as he said he had lost faith in the Japanese justice system and, given the 99.97% conviction rate in Japan, another lengthy appeal would only prolong an inevitable outcome.

Mark Devlin, publisher of the English-language Tokyo magazine Metropolis and website Japan Today

"We should be wary of relatives and support groups who promote an agenda by manipulating our willingness to believe that Japanese systems and institutions are inherently unfair. It's disturbing to see comments that back acquittal for Baker simply because he is "one of us" or deriving from the hatred some have for the Japanese justice system. However much we dislike that system, criminals should not get off the hook simply because we don't agree with it.

Baker's supporters have tried to blame everyone for Baker's predicament: the friend, the customs officer, the translators, the judge, the media, the British Embassy, the Japanese system — everyone except Baker himself.

Baker's supporters misrepresented the case to the media and the public to make him appear innocent. In doing so they wasted a lot of people's hope, time, effort and money."

British Lawyer and Director General of UK charity group Fair Trials Abroad, Mr. Stephen Jakobi:-

"Baker's case has in effect raised major concerns regarding the Japanese Justice System and its compliance with International law of fair trial (ICCPR) to which it is treaty bound.

a.. Following an arrest, police can keep a suspect in for questioning for up to 23 days, with no contact with the outside world, apart from a consular representative, and no legal support.
b.. The standard of interpretation is very poor and often misleading. Suspects are forced to sign documents in Japanese without translation into their own language.
c.. The police seem to be very reluctant to investigate any defence assertions and defence evidence is permitted to be disallowed by them or withheld.
d.. There is no presumption of innocence: acquittal is virtually unknown.

It is as a result of the above that we would say that Japan is unique among all major democracies in practising systematic defiance of the international rules of Fair trial that they are treaty bound to observe. The Japanese Justice system was on trial today and it failed."

Masaharu Katsuno, a Japanese national convicted, along with Chika Honda, of drug smuggling in a controversial case in Australia

"In Melbourne, I was treated the same way as Mr. Nick Baker. I was imprisoned for 10 and a half years after receiving an unfair trial based upon mistaken translations and prejudices. Despite the emergence of evidence indicating innocence, the door to a retrial continues to remain firmly shut. Proving your innocence after being falsely charged is a hard task. However, I will never give up in my fight to prove the charges were false.

I pray that Mr. Baker will never give up either, I pray that both he and his supporters will continue to fight and that you will all take care of your health for this purpose."

Member of the European Parliament The Baroness Sarah Ludford:-

"The reduced sentence shows at least some acknowledgement of the frailty of the case against Nick, but the Court has missed an opportunity to overturn a gross miscarriage of justice. I am very disappointed indeed that he has not been acquitted. The Japanese justice system is in dire need of reform. Criminal cases have a 99% conviction rate, and all those accused are presumed guilty. Nick’s case in particular has been devoid of proper legal safeguards. There has been more than three years of tireless campaigning to try to ensure a fair trial, especially by Nick's mother Iris to whom I pay tribute. But justice has still not been done, and this is a stain on the reputation of Japan."

Professor Makiko Mizuno, linguists experts at Osaka's Senrikinran University:-

"I am very disappointed with the Baker judgment. I am surprised that those involved in trials still don't seem to understand the role of language in judicial procedures and the possible effects of successful or unsuccessful communication on the judicial procedures. Even if individual instances of misinterpretation are corrected in the end, it is obvious that if the interpreter does not have the ability to sufficiently and smoothly aid communication, the consistency and integrity of the statements made by suspect/defendant will be undermined. It is similarly obvious that this will have some influence over the way an opinion is shaped in the investigators' and judges' mind.

It is also common knowledge among interpreters that one can't accurately interpret even if one speaks English unless one goes through formal training. It seems that in the judiciary, STEP (Eiken) grades, TOEIC scores, and Tour-Guide Certification are seen as sufficient benchmarks for the accuracy of interpretation. If those in the judiciary truly believe this, their understanding needs to change immediately. Simply assigning an interpreter does not mean that you have respected the human rights of the suspect/defendant. Respecting human rights is only possible when assigning an interpreter that can properly help communicate."

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