A Chinese man living in Toronto whom Japanese police believe may know who murdered three women in a suburban Tokyo supermarket in 1995 said he has accepted that Canada will extradite him soon and looks forward to "finality," his lawyer said Wednesday.
Robin Parker said she sent a letter last week to the Canadian Department of Justice informing them that the man will not appeal a court decision to extradite him to Japan on suspicion of illegally acquiring a Japanese passport and leaving the country in 2002.
Japanese police are in Canada and were scheduled to leave Thursday with the man in their custody. After arriving in Tokyo, they are expected to arrest him on the fraudulent passport charges.
Parker said that although the man was apprehensive about going to Japan, he was "relieved" that Japanese authorities told Canada that they will not "arrest, detain, indict, try or punish" him for anything other than the passport violation. They also said they will not send him to China.
"Once he confirmed the promises, he said 'then I'm ready to go,' " Parker said.
She said the man maintains he knows nothing about the 18-year-old murder investigation and stressed her concern about a false confession from any interrogation by Japanese authorities.
"That change (in his knowledge about the murder case) would be very surprising based on all the information we have, and it would suggest that it came about from something he experienced while in detention," she said.