After 16 years in detention, a Japanese who was once on death row has been released from the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City last Monday, a Bureau of Corrections official said Tuesday.
In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, the official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Hideshi Suzuki, 54, was released from the New Bilibid Prison and was turned over to the Bureau of Immigration.
"Mr. Suzuki's papers were approved last Friday. We had an agreement with the Japanese Embassy that its escorts would pick him up. So they (escorts) picked him up yesterday [Monday]," said the official.
However, Suzuki remains detained at the Bureau of Immigration because he has yet to pay the fine of P1 million that is part of the condition President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave him when she pardoned him two months ago.
In 1994, authorities arrested Suzuki in Bacolod City in central Philippines for his possession of dried marijuana, a violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972.
A Kyodo News report report posted on japantoday.com said Suzuki was meted the death sentence for drug trafficking, but the Philippine Supreme Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
On April 26, 2010, President Arroyo granted Suzuki conditional pardon with voluntary deportation. The conditions for his release include a P1-million fine, his agreement to be deported and to never to return to the Philippines, being an undesirable alien.
The Kyodo News reported that Suzuki had maintained his innocence since his conviction, saying he was only set-up.
In 1997, Amnesty International also said it was "concerned that his [Suzuki's] trial may have been prejudiced by the fact that he does not speak or read English. It is believed that he was interrogated without an interpreter and was required to sign documents that he could not understand." — RSJ/LBG
