Japan considers allowing victims to play greater role in trials
The Justice Ministry in Japan is considering introducing legislation that would allow victims of crime to play a greater role in the trials of their accused offenders, reports The Japan Times.
Crime victims or their next of kin were in November 2000 guaranteed the right to testify in trials, following revisions to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The ministry set up a study panel on criminal victim policy in September 2003. It has studied the effects of allowing surviving crime victims or their next of kin to question defendants during trials in addition to the conventional questioning by judges and prosecutors, the sources said. Full report by The Japan Times