Man suffers cracked ribs in police questioning

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 37-year-old lieutenant of the Osaka prefectural police allegedly kicked a steel desk into a male suspect during questioning, cracking the man's ribs, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The police will soon send papers to prosecutors, referring to suspicion of violence resulting in injury by a special public officer.

The police will consider taking disciplinary action against the lieutenant.

According to the police, the incident occurred in December as the lieutenant was questioning a 67-year-old man indicted for defrauding people who had bought worthless wildland in a scam, by convincing them to invest in condominiums.

During the interview, the lieutenant reportedly sat opposite the man at a desk in an interrogation room at the prefectural police headquarters.

When the man, who had been arrested four times since July in relation to the alleged fraud, repeatedly denied the allegations, the lieutenant became irritated and kicked a leg of the desk.

The force of the kick caused the desk to hit the man in the side, who reported pain and was taken by another investigator to hospital. He was diagnosed there as having suffered cracked ribs.

Only the lieutenant and the defendant were in the room at the time.

January 19, 2008