The Supreme Court has begun to examine the legitimacy of the former practice of trying criminal defendants afflicted with leprosy outside the courts, usually at state-run sanatoriums or detention centers, due to fears of infection, sources said Saturday.
Last November, a leprosy patients' group petitioned the court to call for a review of the past practice, arguing that resorting to special courts infringed on the right to a public trial guaranteed by the Constitution.
It is rare for the top court to examine the procedures followed in previous trials.
The court intends to interview former leprosy patients about the matter, according to the sources.
Special courts were convened for 95 cases between 1947 and 1972, all but one of which was a criminal trial. The proceedings were held within sanatoriums or detention centers where the patients were quarantined and the trials effectively took place behind closed doors.
In 2001, the Kumamoto District Court ruled that the government's policy of isolating people with leprosy was unconstitutional and in violation of their human rights, on the grounds that from 1960 on, quarantine was no longer deemed necessary from a medical point of view.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court decided to examine 27 cases tried outside the courts that have been ruled unconstitutional, and launched an investigative committee for that purpose in May, according to the sources.