Ex-Japanese Prisoner Raps China

Tokyo, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)--Hideji Suzuki, a Japanese man who was detained in China for six years on what he claims were false espionage charges, has criticized the country's human rights situation and legal system.

"Its legal system is full of problems. We must recognize it's a scary country," Suzuki, former head of a Japan-China youth exchange association, told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Suzuki was about to conclude his business trip to China in July 2016 when he was bundled into a car by a group of six men at an airport. He was held in a dark room for seven months before his official arrest.

Suzuki was charged with spying for Japanese intelligence authorities, an accusation he denies.

He was tried behind closed doors, with all his requests for witnesses turned down.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]