In 1992
Chika Honda was a 36-year-old Japanese woman who accepted an offer from a regular customer, Mistuo at the pub she worked nights in, to join him and his brothers on a
holiday to Australia - her first ever overseas trip. During a stopover in Kuala Lumpur their suitcases were stolen. Charlie, a business associate of Mistuo, offered to sort everything out and returned the next morning with their belongings in a new set of suitcases, claiming their luggage had been slashed with a knife. When the group arrived in Melbourne, customs found 13kg of heroin in the lining of their suitcases. Chika and the others were
arrested, investigated, charged and later tried and sentenced.
Chika was eventually released and
deported in 2002 after having served 10 years in Victorian prisons. She still maintains
her innocence. Several documentaries about this case, known in Japan as the Melbourne Incident have been aired in
Japan but very little coverage has been given in
Australia. In one of the documentaries,
Charlie completely exonerates Chika (PDF : See page 5). In 2002, her
Japanese lawyers filed a
submission to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva to clear her name. Two years later and nothing has yet been achieved. The Australian government
still admits no miscarriage of justice.
But she'll be right mate, we Aussies
know
what we're doing.
posted by DirtyCreature
on Dec 11, 2004 -
34 comments
