Japanese authorities will not be held responsible for the death of a Sri Lankan woman who died while in custody at an immigration center in Nagoya last March, after prosecutors decided to drop the case against the then-senior officials on Friday.

Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali's relatives filed a criminal complaint with the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office last November against the immigration center's senior officials, accusing them of causing her death by failing to provide appropriate medical care.

The prosecutors office had been investigating the case as suspected murder and abandonment by a person responsible for protection, based on Wishma’s medical report, testimonies of the parties involved and insights from medical experts. But they have decided to drop all criminal charges against the then-senior officials on the grounds that they could not be proven.

The authorities have informed the bereaved family about the results of the investigation, which is expected to end now that the charges have been dropped.

Wishma’s family is also seeking ¥156 million in damages in a civil lawsuit against the Nagoya Immigration Bureau.

Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali died at the age of 33 on March 6 last year while under the care of the Nagoya Immigration Bureau, following a month of medical complaints including vomiting and stomach aches.

Her family has claimed that the government refused to grant her provisional release despite her deteriorating health as a way to pressure her to return to Sri Lanka, which resulted in her death.

The family also allege that she was illegally detained and later died due to a lack of necessary medical care while in custody.

Wishma arrived in Japan on a student visa in 2017 to study Japanese. But she overstayed her visa, with her asylum application being denied by immigration authorities.

The authorities discovered her visa status when she sought police protection from domestic abuse in Shizuoka Prefecture in August 2020, and sent her to the Nagoya immigration center to await deportation.

She had complained of poor health since January 2021, but her request for provisional release, which supporters say could have helped her, was denied.

The Immigration Services Agency, which is affiliated with the Justice Ministry, said in an investigative report issued last August that the immigration center staff lacked awareness of how to handle crises and that there were problems with the facility's medical and information-sharing systems.

In response to the allegations, the agency said in the report that Wishma died of illness while in custody. However, the report said that the probe could not determine the precise medical cause because there were multiple factors that could have triggered her death.

In March of this year, Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa told reporters that the ministry will “make continuous efforts so that (a similar situation) will never be repeated."

"This is something that must not happen at immigration centers, which are responsible for people's lives," he said.

Information from Kyodo added