Japan jails Briton for drug smuggling

By Quentin Sommerville BBC Tokyo Correspondent

A British man has been jailed for 14 years for drug smuggling by a Japanese court.

Nick Baker, 32, was sentenced by Chiba District Court, near Tokyo, on Thursday for violating the narcotic control act and customs act.

Nick Baker has always maintained his innocence

Mr Baker hung his head and wept as Judge Kenji Katoya found him guilty of international drug trafficking.

He has maintained his innocence ever since he was arrested at Narita Airport in Tokyo, where the bag he was carrying was found to contain 41,000 ecstasy tablets and almost a kilogram of cocaine.

It was the largest seizure of its type by Japanese customs.

Mr Baker claims the bag belonged to a friend.

That friend, referred to as Mr Jones, escaped but was later arrested in Belgium and stands accused of attempting to trick three young travellers into carrying drugs through customs checkpoints there.

Despite strenuous efforts by Mr Baker's campaigners, and by the British Embassy here in Japan, the Belgian evidence was never heard by a Japanese court.

For him even to serve one year would be wrong- he is innocent Shunji Miyake, Nick Baker's lawyer

British government officials were also concerned about the conditions in which Mr Baker was being held. For the first 10 months of his detention he was placed in solitary confinement.

He was transferred out of solitary only after Bill Gammel, the UK's minister for Japan, met foreign ministry officials in Tokyo.

Mr Baker now shares a cell with six others, which is freezing in the winter and stiflingly hot in the summer.

Until recently, the seven men were allowed to wash themselves only twice a week in a shared bucket of water.

Mr Baker's lawyer, Shunji Miyake, said that even for a drugs case the sentence, which included a £26,000 fine, was particularly harsh.

He maintained his client's innocence, and pledged to fight on.

"I will see him tomorrow, we will appeal immediately," he told the BBC.

"For him even to serve one year would be wrong - he is innocent," he said.

'Souvenirs'

Mr Baker said in his testimony that he had visited Japan to pick up World Cup souvenirs.

But Chief Judge Katoya said he believed the luggage belonged to Baker. He told the Chiba District Court that Baker had the key to the bag and knew the numbers to the combination lock.

In summing up he also noted that when customs officials asked Baker whom the bag belonged to, the 32-year-old man said: "It's mine".

Mr Miyake said he expected the appeal process to take around five to six months. He petitioned the Belgian government to make available its evidence on the Mr Jones case to the Chiba District court.

The Belgian authorities said that such a request would have to come from a Japanese department.

So far the Ministry of Justice in Japan has refused to comply, but Mr Miyake maintained that the evidence would form a central part of his appeal.

A group campaigning for Mr Baker's release has said the Japanese courts have convicted the wrong man, and pledged to fight on to clear his name.