THE MOST CELEBRATED ANTI-DEATH PENALTY LAWYER FRAMED

Mr. Yasuda is also the leading defence attorney for Matsumoto Chizuo, aka Asahara Shoko, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that allegedly committed a series of serious crimes, including the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack. While no lawyers were willing to assume Asahara's defence for obvious reasons, Mr. Yasuda took charge of the defence team. Professor Kikuta Koichi, a close friend of Yasuda and also a leading anti-death penalty campaigner in Japan, said that Mr. Yasuda took the case because he believed that the most infamous criminal should still be defended fully. Asahara is very likely to be sentenced to death, so he should be protected. The prosecution often complains about his team's attitude in the court, charging that they are attempting to obstruct the prompt procedure of the trial. And the media has been quick to repeating this attitude.

On Dec 16 more than 450 people gathered to protest against Yasuda's undue arrest and the framing up. People including lawyers, lawmakers, scholars and citizens asserted that he had not committed any criminal actions. The police fabricated the crime from a trifling trouble between a creditor and a debtor. This is not a criminal case anyway, only a civil case. This frame up is a clear attempt to oppress the abolitionist movement in Japan.

The Japanese government executed three death row inmates on Nov 19 shortly after the UN urged Japan to proceed the abolition of the death penalty. The Japanese administration openly ignored the UN recommendation. No one can doubt that this latest incident is part of the same plot.