CRIMINAL ENTRAPMENT
KEYWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW, DRUGS

Foreigners have helped to play a useful role in defining Japanese law, at least in a tangential way. This was because an Iranian was arrested and convicted based on a drug sting, otherwise known as entrapment, which has traditionally been looked at quite adversely by the Japanese legal establishment. The fact that this was a drug case is probably the most important aspect in that situation. In any event, this was the first case where the Court set out the conditions for permitting such entrapment operations. The Supreme Court upheld a six year prison term and a 1 million yen fine for the sting operation where a police officer posed as a buyer for cannabis/marijuana. The three conditions announced by the court were:
1.    It was a drug case, or another crime where no victim is at the scene
2.    When the suspect is intent on executing the crime, and
3.    When it is difficult to reveal the perpetrators through a regular investigation

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved Attorney Roderick H. Seeman

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