MANILA -- Two of four Japanese men suspected of involvement in a recent string of robberies in Japan, currently being held in a detention center near Manila, are scheduled to face court hearings on Tuesday after decisions on their treatment were postponed on Thursday. The extradition of all four suspects together, which the Japanese government had sought and to which the Philippine side had agreed, now appears difficult to realize.
The four suspects being held at a local immigration facility are Yuki Watanabe, 38; Kiyoto Imamura, 38; Toshiya Fujita, 38; and Tomonobu Kojima, 45. The four were believed to have played key roles in a fraud group that Philippine investigative authorities cracked down on in 2019. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department issued arrest warrants for them on theft charges as the fraud targeted victims in Japan.
Court hearings for two of the four, Watanabe and Kojima, were held on Thursday over accusations of crimes including assault by Watanabe against his former wife. Prosecutors sought dismissal of those charges to clear the way for their deportation to Japan, saying the allegations had been fabricated to avoid extradition. In the Philippines, defendants facing criminal charges within the country cannot be deported.
