Nicholas John Baker

Nick Baker is a professional chef, raised in Gloucestershire, England. He was arrested at Narita Airport, (Japan) on April 13 2002 at the age of 32, on suspicion of importing ecstasy and cocaine, which was found in false compartments in a suitcase he was carrying. Despite his claims that he was tricked by his traveling companion, he was sentenced to 14 years jail with forced labour and fined ¥5,000,000- by the Chiba District Court.

Events surrounding Baker's arrest

Baker has consistently claimed that he was duped by his travelling companion, James Prunier, whom he became friendly with after meeting 2-3 years previously at a local football club. Prunier, 8 years Baker's senior, came from a wealthy family and had been privately educated at Radley College.

Baker claimed that, after a long and tiring flight, the pair were split up at immigration, leading to Prunier arriving at the baggage carousel first. When Baker arrived, Prunier told him that his (Baker's) bag had come and gone. Prunier, who was already holding his own suitcase, asked Baker to take it and get in the customs line while he waited for Baker's bag, whereupon he would join him in the queue. Prunier however joined a different queue with Baker's blue sports bag. Upon reaching inspection, the grey Delsey suitcase Baker was holding for Prunier was found to contain 41,120 ecstasy tablets together with 992.5 grams of cocaine, the largest ever walk-through seizure of ecstasy at Narita Airport at that time.

While Baker was arrested, Prunier was able to enter and subsequently leave Japan freely. He was placed under surveillance and his phone calls monitored, but he was not questioned by Japanese police during his stay. He cut short his visit, leaving Japan only two days after Baker's arrest.

Three months later Prunier was arrested in Belgium for allegedly smuggling drugs along with three other young British people. In August 2003, whilst awaiting trial, Prunier gave an interview with Britain's Central Television in which he denied he had set up Baker and claimed to have received death threats relating to Baker's case. In August 2004, Prunier, an unstable cocaine and alcohol addict, was found dead on a railway track in Gloucester aged 42. An inquest returned a suicide verdict.

Chiba District Court trial

Baker was charged with violating the Narcotic and Psychotropic Drug Control Law and Customs Law. The Prosecution contended that Baker's statements showed he was involved with a drug smuggling ring, that he had changed his story several times, that he had a financial incentive to commit the crime, and that he was in possession of the drugs. The defence argued that all of Baker's signed statements used against him in court were written only in Japanese, a language he does not speak or read. They argued that inconsistencies in his story arose because Baker's thick Gloucestershire accent might have caused some misunderstandings for the interpreters. They argued that Baker was coerced into signing statements he was told incriminated Prunier when he was actually incriminating himself. They asked for Prunier's involvement in the Belgian case (the so-called "Belgian Evidence") to be submitted into evidence. They submitted tax returns to show that Baker had an above-average income and had also just become the father of a baby boy and therefore no reason to engage in a risky drug smuggling venture. District Court Presiding Judge Kenji Kadoya refused to admit the Belgian evidence and refused to enter Baker's tax returns as evidence.

In June 2003, Baker was sentenced by the Chiba District Court to 14 years in prison with forced labour and a Yen 5,000,000- fine. Baker launched an immediate 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 around 18 hours. During the course of the trial the prosecutor, the court-appointed translator and one of the judges was changed (Japan does not have a jury system, each trial is overseen by three judges).

The defence argued that there was collusion between prosecutors and customs investigation officers regarding the initial customs officers report, particularly as it related to the whereabouts of the key to the case. They also argued that Baker's statements showed coercion by investigators and that Baker's statements had been incorrectly interpreted and inaccurately translated. The defense also argued that the "Belgian Evidence" and Baker's tax returns should have been admitted in the lower court. The defense submitted testimony from a linguistics professor, showing gross discrepancies in the Chiba district court trials translation and further testimony from a photographic expert purportedly showing the key zipped up inside a pouch in the suitcase - the implication being that Baker could not have thrown the key into the case rebutting the customs officers' testimony.

On October 27 2005, the presiding judge upheld the guilty verdict, ruling that Baker was aware of the contents of the case. However, the judge reduced the sentence from 14 years to 11 years noting that although Baker had not shown remorse "he does not seem to be the mastermind, and his parents have been worried about him." Baker's fine was also reduced from Yen 5,000,000- (approx. £24,392) to Yen 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. His work rate was raised from Yen 10,000 to Yen 20,000 (approx. £97.58) per day. A daily "work rate" is the sum deducted from his fine, if it remains unpaid. In Baker's case, he will have 150 days added to his sentence if the fine is not paid.

In November 2005 Baker decided not to appeal to Japan's Supreme Court as he had lost faith in the judicial system and was transferred to Fuchu Prison to begin serving his sentence. Baker will be eligible to transfer to a UK prison after one third of his remaining sentence has been completed in Japan.

Mr.Baker is due for transfer around summer 2008.

Justice for Nick Baker Campaign

In the summer of 2003, soon after the Chiba District Court verdict, Baker's mother Iris launched an awareness campaign and website Justice For Nick Baker and 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. 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 Chiba District Court, and strove to focus international attention on the upcoming High Court appeal. The campaign focused on three main issues:

1. Baker's treatment from the time of his arrest, specifically that he had been interrogated for 23 days, shackled to a chair, without counsel present; and called for the enshrinement of a detainee's right to legal council and the abandonement of the Daiyo kangoku system whereby detainees are able to be held under total police and investigators control rather than a professional corps of guards independent from investigative authorities.
2. That he had been made to sign confessions in a language he did not understand; and called for reform allowing the tape-recording of interrogations and for proper licensing of court and police interpreters and translators.
3. Drew attention to Japan's 99.97% conviction rate, noting that Presiding Judge Kenji Kadoya had never found a defendant "not guilty" in his more than 10 years on the bench.

A petition signed by more than 5,000 people was presented by Iris Baker and The Baroness Sarah Ludford, Member of European Parliament, to Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. Iris Baker later presented the petition to the Tokyo High Court.

During the appeal, the website posted visitor logs which showed regular monitoring by the Japanese Ministry of Justice, and administrators 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.

Due to the campaign major newspapers and television in the UK and English media in Japan reported on the case. Aside from a story in the Yomiuri Shimbun, it was largely ignored by Japanese-language media.

Criticism of Baker and the Support group

In January 2004 the support group released information that Baker had been to Japan two months before his arrest.

In March 2004 some of Baker's defence documents were released on Baker's support site. The documents indicated that when Baker and Prunier had been travelling in Europe, Prunier introduced two Israelis to Baker and later told him that he owed them "20,000" and was being sent to Japan to collect something for them ("sex pills; clothes or money"). The Israelis provided the case to Prunier. The statements also indicated that the Israelis threatened Baker after check-in at the airport, threatening to kill members of his family, showing him three murder-scene photos. Iris Baker denied that Baker was involved with the Israeli Mafia.

Mark Devlin, the publisher of Metropolis, a Tokyo-based English language free magazine, and Japan Today, an Internet news portal, initially supported Baker's cause and promoted the case through his publications. After learning that Baker had been to Japan two months before his arrest he reversed his position and wrote in a September 4, 2004 editorial that Iris Baker and the support group had not been honest in their presentation of facts to the public.

On September 6 2004, Baker's supporters asked his local MP David Drew to make representations upon Baker's behalf. Drew responded that he had made representations "up to and including the Foreign Office" and while he accepted that the Japanese penal system was "brutal", his own "cross-examination" of the UK police did not tally with the comments on the support website and suggested an "international enquiry" was underway. Iris Baker responded by contacting the Foreign Office who were unaware of any representations by Drew to either themselves or the British Embassy. Iris Baker's further enquiries to a Chief Detective Inspector with the Gloustershire police confirmed that there was no local or international enquiry underway as Drew claimed.

In November 2004, after Devlin had emailed a 30-page document entitled "The Nick Baker Deception" to other media and supporters, Iris Baker called him a spammer and claimed he had harvested emails from the support site. Since Devlin claimed she had "suppressed information"; "deceived the media and the public" and made "anti-Japanese statements" she also invited Devlin to make these claims whilst in the UK so that she may proceed with a libel action. Devlin said Iris Baker's claims were "ludicrous". To date no libel suit has been filed.

Towards the end of the appeal the British Embassy released information thet the Belgian dupes had actually been convicted and released with time served and suspended sentences. Baker's supporters claim that they based their information that the dupes had been set free on two articles in that appeared in The Guardian in July of 2003.

Although all available appeal court documents were released on the support web-site, Iris Baker refused to release or translate the district court documents during the appeal. The British Embassy later confirmed that it had translated the original Chiba district court documents into English for a pro-bono UK barrister. A copy was passed to the family sometime after the Chiba trial.

The Japanese Justice System and the 99.97% Conviction rate

Criticism of the Japanese criminal-justice system's 99.97% conviction rate is central to Baker's campaign. The rate was significantly lower until Japan eliminated its jury system in 1943. Lobbying by human rights groups and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations resulted the passing of a judicial reform bill in May, 2004, which will reintroduce a lay-jury system in 2009.

The high conviction rate is a result the weight given confessions obtained during the 23-day period Japanese police and prosecutors are permitted to interrogate suspects without access to legal counsel. Despite the Japanese Constitution's Article 38 categorical requirement that "no person shall be convicted or punished in cases where the only proof against him is his own confession," defendants are routinely convicted solely on the basis of these confessions.

J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School and Eric B. Rasmusen of Indiana University argue in their paper ("Why Is the Japanese Conviction Rate So High?") that the conviction rate in Japan is high due three factors:

• Japanese prosecutors have limited resources and only pick the cases that are assured success
• Judges look down on prosecutors who have not prepared their cases well
• The overall incarceration level in Japan is low.

Temple University Professor and author Ivan Hall asks whether Ramseyer's ready defence of Japanese institutions may be due to a conflict of interest -- Ramseyer holds the million-Dollar Mitsubishi Chair at Harvard Law School.

Reactions to the Trials

Public reaction to the Baker trials was mixed.

Devlin said that dissatisfaction with Japanese institutions was not in itself a sufficient reason to exonerate Baker and that matters of guilt or innocence should come first.

The UK charity group Fair Trials Abroad's director Stephen Jakobi criticized the 23-day interrogation period and interrogation without counsel, the signing of "confession" documents in a language foreign suspects usually cannot understand, and the prosecution's withholding of evidence. He said Japan had not abided by the fair trial provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which it is treaty bound: "The Japanese Justice system was on trial here and it failed."

Miyake protested that the High Court had sidestepped the issues raised during the appeal. "It is deeply regrettable that everything we argued in court was dismissed," he said.

With regard to the translations, Linguistics Professor Makiko Mizuno of Osaka's Senrikinran University, criticised the Japanese judiciary, saying "understanding needs to change immediately" regarding what constitutes an able interpreter. Japan has no licensing system for court interpreters, and defendants are not permitted to hire their own. Judge Tao had, in dismissing the defence's complaints about interpreters' abilities, noted that some interpreters had high TOEIC scores or had passed Tour-Guide Certification tests.

The International Bar Association, which encompasses the Japanese Federation Of Bar Associations, cited problems specific to the Baker case, particularly the lack of any recordings of interrogations, in its paper "Interrogation of Criminal Suspects in Japan".

Japanese nationals involved in the so-called "Melbourne Incident" including Chika Honda issued a statement supporting Baker; Six Members of European Parliament signed the Justice for Nick Baker petition and in the British House of Commons there were calls for Tony Blair to raise the issue during a summit with his Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi. Baroness Ludford called the Baker case a "gross miscarriage of justice" and the High Court verdict "a stain on the reputation of Japan."

News links about the case (ordered by date)

• Peer alleges Briton's trial is flawed
• 'Duped' Briton gets 14 years
• Convicted Briton says he was drug run patsy (requires registration)
• Nick Baker fights 14-year sentence for smuggling drugs
• Trial and Error feature in Metropolis magazine by Josh Noblestone
• Nick wasn't set up says travelling companion
• Briton begins drugs charge appeal
• Jailed Briton's appeal postponed
• Man implicated in Nick Baker drug conviction found dead in Gloucester
• Train suicide for drugs case man
• Drug felon Nick Baker's sentence reduced to 11 years
• Judge rejects drugs man's appeal

Other External links

• Nick Baker's supporters' site
• Fair Trials Abroad entry on Nick Baker's case
• Articles about the case by Baroness Sarah Ludford, Member of the European Parliament
• We the Jury: Criticism of the Justice for Nick Baker Support Network by the Publisher of Metropolis magazine
• Spam Mail: Criticism of the Publisher of Metropolis magazine by Iris Baker
• Devlin's response to Iris Baker's criticism
• Ramseyer report, "Why Japan has a 99% conviction rate"
• Temple University's Ivan P. Hall's critique of Ramseyer for The Japan Policy Research Institute
• Amnesty International's human right's concerns - Japan
• "The Struggle for Justice" - article in "The Foreigner" magazine. Nov 2003
• Metropolis magazine round-up of the case
• Responses to the appeal verdict on Baker's support site