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Thursday, December 23, 2004
Illegal arrest, weak evidence prod fiscal to release Japanese
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor has ordered the police to immediately release Hiroyuki Hasegawa, the Japanese earlier arrested and detained for the murder of his estranged wife.
In a two-page order signed last Tuesday, Assistant City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon said Hasegawa’s arrest last Dec. 16 was illegal to begin with, “although the arresting officers were obviously motivated by good faith.”
Lack of basis
“The arrest of the respondent has not been properly effected,” Sellon’s order said.
It also dismissed the formal complaint for lack of basis, saying the evidence submitted by the police was insufficient.
“To state it bluntly, a more serious evidence gathering should be undertaken by the police before charging the respondent, or any other suspect, in connection with the killing of the late Katherine Serreño-Hasegawa,” the order added.
The complaint can be refiled when the police have sufficient evidence.
Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Osorio prepared the order that also clarified the exact departmental procedures over complaints involving warrantless arrests.
The order cited Section 5, Rule 113 of the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure, which allows warrantless arrests if the individual was caught in the act of committing a crime or when a crime has just been committed or when the arresting officers had personal knowledge as to who did it.
“Sad to state, none of the circumstances mentioned above that would justify a warrantless arrest is present in the instant case,” the order read.
With the illegality of the arrest established, the order discussed what the Department of Justice’s Manual of Prosecutors states should be done with complaints where the respondent was illegally arrested.
“Pursuant to Section 9, Part 2, of the Manual of Prosecutors, the undersigned has no other recourse but to recommend the immediate release of the respondent from detention, unless he is being detained for some other case or cause,” the order stated.
In the murder charge on the killing of Freeman news photographer Alan Dizon, the office allowed the conduct of inquest investigations against respondent Edgar Belandres even though he was arrested outside the two conditions stated in Section 5, Rule 113, of the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure.
Polygraph test
Homicide operatives arrested and detained Hasegawa, of Yamanashi, Japan, after he failed a polygraph test in relation to wife’s death last Dec. 12.
Katherine Sorreño-Hasegawa, 38, was found dead inside her room at Kingston apartment, which she co-owned with Hiroyuki.
She was naked from the waist down when discovered and had been stabbed eight times. Police found semen in her body.
Hiroyuki had told police he found Katherine’s body.
He said he went to Katherine’s room early that morning and had to force open the door when nobody answered his knock.
He and Katherine separated years before but continued to stay civil to each other. They lived in different rooms inside the same building.
The police, in their affidavit complaint, cited seven circumstances where Hiroyuki was most probably the assailant.
This was further bolstered by his failure to pass the polygraph examination conducted with the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation.
“On the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant the conduct of a regular preliminary investigation, the undersigned finds the same to be wanting.
Firstly, the result of the polygraph test is not admissible evidence. Secondly, the seven circumstances cited by the arresting officers in their affidavit, if joined together, cannot properly be formed into one whole chain that would indubitably point to the respondent as the perpetrator of the crime,” the order read.
(December 23, 2004 issue)
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