1.Case Summary

LE THI THUY LINH (hereinafter referred to as Linh) came to Japan from Vietnam as a technical intern trainee in the summer of 2018. She worked at a mandarin orange farm in Kumamoto prefecture.

 (Provided by Daisuke Shibata)

She was dating a man and became pregnant, but she could not talk to anyone about it. In the morning of November 15, 2020, she had a stillbirth of twin babies in the living room of the farmer she worked for. 

Linh gave names to the twins, who are dead without any cry, wrote praying words on a message paper, wrapped the bodies with towels, and put the protected bodies into the cardboard box, which she layered twice. Then she put the box on the top of a castered shelf in the living room. 

The praying words by Linh is as the following: (translation)

"1/10/2020 (November 15, 2020 on the lunar calendar is October 1, 2020, the day when my children died.)

Koi (name of the first child)

Kuoi (name of the second child)

I'm sorry for my two children!

Namu Amida Butsu 

I hope that the two children will be able to go to a peaceful place as soon as possible. "

On the next morning, Linh was brought to hospital by her employer. However, because 24 hours had passed after Linh gave the stillbirth until she went to the hospital, she was charged with the abandonment of corpse.

On the one hand, the issue in this case is whether it is appropriate to charge her with the crime of corpse abandonment. On the other hand, there is also the issue of Japanese technical trainees, who are afraid of being sent back to their home country and unable to consult with anyone about pregnancy and birth giving. Further, it is also important to confirm whether criminal charges should be applied to women giving stillbirth alone.

 2. Stillbirth of Twin and the First-instance Judgment

In the morning of November 15, 2020, Linh gave stillbirth to twin children in the living room of a mandarin orange farmer in Kumamoto prefecture, where she was trained. After being hospitalized for 3 days, on November 19, she was arrested by the Kumamoto Prefectural Police on suspicion of abandoning the corpse. This case was widely reported by the media in Kumamoto Prefecture.

The week after the report, we had a meeting and sent in some stuff at the police station. Instead of the court-appointed attorney, Linh asked us to defend her case. There is a huge discrepancy between the case details reported by the mass media and the facts described by Linh through an interpreter to attorneys. As such, we started an urgent petition against prosecution of Linh, and collected more than 600 signatures in merely a week. We submitted the petition to the Public Prosecutors Office of Kumamoto District.

However, on December 10, 2021, the Public Prosecutors Office charged Linh with the same crimes. Linh was detained at the Kumamoto Prefectural Police East Police Station after her arrest. She received a bail with an amount of 2,000,000 Japanese yen, and was released after about 2 months. 

The defense attorneys originally aimed at suspension of prosecution with admission of the crime and charges alleviation considering the circumstances, so that Linh can restart her training in Japan with her remaining visa period. After the bail, the defense attorneys changed their minds. They argued for “not guilty” at the first trial, which is also what Linh believes. 

Such as, the original first trial date of February 2, 2021 was cancelled due to lack of right to judication. In order to support the “not guilty” case, another two attorneys were added, and the defense team consisted of the following three attorneys.

Linh's Defense Attorney Team

Attorney Daiki Ishiguro (Kumamoto Central Law Office)

Attrorney Sawa Kubota (Kumamoto Central Law Office)

Attorney Nobuo Matsuno (Kumamoto Law Office) 

(April 24, 2021 Provided by Kumustaka-Association for Living Togehte with Migrants, the defense attorney team claiming Lin's innocence at press conference)

At the Kumamoto District Court, the criminal court judge, the prosecutor, and the defense attorneys held five pre-trial discussion conferences. During the conferences, the following issues have been sorted out by the judge.

(1) Does the act of the defendant fall under Article 190 of the Penal Code, abandonment of a corpse?

(2) Did the accused intend to abandon the body?

(3) Was there a possibility that the defendant could be expected to bear a funeral obligation on the day of November 15, 2020?

In addition, the judge, after considering the expiration date of Linh (August 2021), decided to expedite the trial by only examining Linh without examining other witnesses, which was accepted by both the prosecutor and defense attorneys. The first trial date was on June 22, 2021 (Tuesday), the second trial date was on July 13, 2021 (Tuesday), and the decision was rendered on July 20, 2021.

On the first trial on June 22, 2021, held at the 101st court Kumamoto District Court for about 3 hours, the prosecutor read the indictment, the defense counsel and the prosecutor made the opening statement, and Lin was questioned.

On the second trial on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 at the same courtroom, the prosecutor gave an argument and asked for a sentence of one year in prison. The prosecutor was scheduled to spend 15 minutes speaking and leave 15 minutes for interpretation, but the prosecutor spoke for 20 minutes and was warned by the judge to keep the time. Therefore, the defense counsel argued for about 20 minutes with the simultaneous interpretation. 

In the end, the judge asked Linh, "This is the end of the trial, do you have anything to say?" 

Linh said, "I did not abandon my children’s bodies."

The trial concluded on that day. 

 3. The Decision of Suspended Sentence

The decision was rendered on 1:10 pm on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, in which Vietnamese technical intern trainee Lin was found guilty of the crime of the abandonment of the corpse. Instead of 1-year imprisonment, Linh was sentenced with 8-month of imprisonment and 3-years of suspension of execution. The decision mentioned that the sentence was lightened considering the love of mother that Linh gave to her children and the problem in the technical trainees program, making Linh unable to consult with anyone. 

Although the judge did not change the initial judgement of “guilty”, having heard the arguments of the defense attorney team who fought for “not guilty” for five months, and the testimonies of Linh in person while seeing her gestures and expressions, there must have been changed in the thoughts of the judge. Further, the mass media not only reported Lin as a criminal, but also highlighted the issues of the technical trainee system and whether Linh’s “not guilty” stance. 

This provided the basis for the “not guilty” appeal at the higher court. 

Linh’s Comment on the decision

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone for their support for my innocence allegation. I am very sorry that my innocence was not accepted. I did not abandon or hide the body of my children. I cannot accept this decision, so I would like to appeal to the Fukuoka High Court for a not-guilty judgement. We look forward to your continued support.

 July 20, 2021 LE THI THUY LINH

 Director Ken Hasuda of Jikei Hospital’s Comment on the decision

Immediately after giving birth, Linh was physically exhausted and was shocked to witness the death of her twin babies. Under these circumstances, we cannot help but feel sympathy and respect for her act of preparing, naming, and attaching a paying message to the babies with the limited items at home.

The sentence states "harmful to the general religious sentiment of the people" as the reason for the sentence, but it is clear that Lin treated the deceased babies respectfully and lovingly. This should not be considered as an act that offends the general religious sentiment of the people. For me, I have no choice but to question the sensibilities and common sense of the judge who made the decision. If such a ruling is repeated, a woman who gives birth in isolation may hide her baby's body for fear of being charged with the crime. In other words, the judgment itself may induce subsequent crimes, and it seems to be a judgment that will exert negative feelings on Japanese society in the future.

 July 20, 2021 Director Ken Hasuda, Jikei Hospital 

 4. Towards Not-Guilty Reversal 

Linh expressed her intention to appeal the ruling, and the defense team appealed to the Fukuoka High Court on July 27, 2021. The date of the first criminal trial of the appeal is scheduled at 1:30 pm on Friday, November 12, 2021, and the deadline for filing the statement of reason for appeal is October 8, 2021. 

In order to win not guilty for Linh, both of the following two are essential: the (1) argument against first-instance conviction and a battle in the court to prove her innocence, and the (2) influence of public opinion supporting not guilty.

 Donation to realize Linh's not-guilty judgement

After being arrested and released on bail, Linh stopped her technical training work due to troubles created by interviews of mass media. She found a new training place and restarted the training in February 2021. In addition, She renewed her technical trainee visa for another 3 months. Currently, Linh is working as a technical trainee while fighting for this case. 

If you also believe in and would like to realize the not guilty decision of Linh, please support us by remitting to the following account.

Bank branch name: Kumamoto Bank Shimodori branch

SWIFT Code: KUMAJPJZ

Account Onwer Name: Kaikei Okazaki Tami

Account Onwer Address: 1-13-45 tatta Kita-ku, Kumamoto-shi, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, post code 861-8006

Bank branch number: 004

Account Name: komusutaka Gaikokujin To Tomoni Ikirukai

Account number: 2199289

Should you have any questions regarding overseas remittance, please contact groupkumustaka@yahoo.co.jp. 

 Calling group

Kumustaka-Association for Living Togehte with Migrants (Representative Shinichiro Nakajima)

Contact information 〒862-0950 3-2-14-302 Suizenji, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto-shi

Shinichiro Sudo Administrative scrivener office noticed

Email: groupkumustaka@yahoo.co.jp 

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Kumustaka-Association for Living Together with Migrants is a citizen group that supports resident foreigners such as migrants, migrant workers, and refugees. Comstarker-At the Society for Living with Foreigners, we are working together with the parties to solve a wide range of problems that foreigners have, such as status of residence, employment, social security, marital problems including domestic violence, and education for children. increase. A society in which all people are protected regardless of their attributes is a society in which we can all live with peace of mind. Komstaka's activities are not only for foreigners, but also for people to understand that it is a problem for all of us.