Footage showing a Kurdish man from Turkey being restrained at an immigration center in Ibaraki Prefecture in January has been submitted to a Tokyo court by the facility after the man sought damages for allegedly being manhandled.
The video shows Deniz, 40, being restrained by staffers at the East Japan Immigration Center. He declined to give his surname for fear of retaliation against his family in Turkey.
His lawyers, who demanded they receive the footage, released the recording to the media following a hearing at the Tokyo District Court on Thursday.
The video shows five to six staffers yelling, “Control, control,” as they hold Deniz to the floor and handcuff him behind his back.
His arms bent backward, the man can be heard repeatedly crying out, “It hurts,” and “They’re going to kill me.”
“It’s no longer an acceptable form of restraint under the immigration center’s regulations, but an organized form of torture,” lawyer Takeshi Ohashi said.
“The facility will become like Abu Ghraib prison if conditions are left like this,” he said, referring to an Iraqi prison where a notorious detainee abuse scandal took place involving the U.S. military.
The immigration center admitted to the occurrence of “unjustifiable conduct” and apologized to the man but has refused to release documents on what actually happened.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” Deniz said, according to the lawyer. “I still have nightmares about the assault.”
The defense team has claimed in court that the incident occurred at midnight on Jan. 18 after the man was denied medicine by the staff. A number of personnel entered his room, twisted his wrists and used their thumbs to thrust up his chin before moving him to a separate room where he was handcuffed tightly behind his back.
The Immigration Services Agency declined to comment, saying that the case has been brought to court.
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