True Crime

Convicted drug smuggler Nick Baker’s story is not what it first appeared

It was just another autumn day in Tokyo; there was nothing particularly remarkable about it. But one man and his family were hoping that Thursday, Oct 27, might, in fact, turn out to be memorable. It was the day Nick Baker would hear the result of his appeal of his conviction for drug smuggling, the day he hoped that he would be declared innocent and allowed to return home to Britain.

Inside the Tokyo High Court, an imposing edifice in Kasumigaseki, Baker was escorted into the chamber by four prison guards in orange uniforms. He was wearing a black suit, a light green shirt and glasses. He was uncuffed and sat down, flanked by two of the guards. The other two retreated to the front of the public gallery, where his mother, Iris, and his supporters sat meters away from a small group of journalists.

Baker’s version of the story, covered by Metropolis and other Japan-related media, is well-known. The 34-year-old British father and business owner was traveling to Japan in the April before the 2002 World Cup to tour stadiums and collect souvenirs. Tired and a little drunk after the flight, his traveling companion, James Prunier, got to the baggage carousel first, where he said that Baker’s bag had come and gone. Prunier told Baker to take his suitcase and get in line while he waited for Baker’s bag. Baker stupidly agreed. At customs, 41,120 tablets of ecstasy and 992.5 grams of cocaine were found beneath a false bottom in the suitcase.

While Prunier left Japan three days later, Baker was sentenced to 14 years. A few months later in Belgium, Prunier was caught, apparently duping other hapless tourists into carrying drug-laden bags through customs. According to Baker’s support team this vital “Belgian evidence” was not admitted in court.

Baker isn't the only foreigner to be arrested for drug smuggling in Japan, nor the only Briton. In May 2002, British music producer Chris Snell traveled to Zurich in Switzerland to work with his friend Andre Thompson, a musician, before coming to Tokyo to work with Thompson’s brother. Snell says that Thompson asked him to take his brother a suitcase of clothes, pointing out that he had no reason to mistrust someone he had known and worked with for years. At Narita, customs officials found a false bottom to the suitcase and 3kg of marijuana. Snell spent two and a half years in prison in Japan, during which time he lodged numerous unsuccessful appeals, before being transferred to Wandsworth Prison in London, where he served a further four months.

Snell believes Baker’s story. “Nick Baker was duped and is innocent of any wrongdoing,” he says. “I seriously question the procedures of the Narita Airport police and their methods of ‘investigation’ and their ‘assembling’ of an accused person’s ‘statements.’”

Nick Baker (right) with his mother, Iris, and brothers, Wayne and Martin courtesy of Iris Baker

This is a view shared by Baker’s mother, Iris. She blames the Japanese justice system, which she considers biased against the defendant. “Nick was held for 23 days, tied and shackled to a chair,” Iris says of her son’s experience after his arrest. “He was not allowed legal counsel. Everything is decided in those 23 days and his fate was sealed.” Iris has worked for a fair trial for Baker, which would include the admission of the Belgian evidence. She also blames the British government, saying she expected more assistance. “This is one of our people,” she says. “I think they could do a lot more.”

Similar criticism of the Australian government was made by the supporters of Schapelle Corby, a 27-year-old trainee beautician from Australia found with 4.1kg of marijuana in her bodyboard bag when she arrived in Bali. The families of people charged overseas often expect their governments to fight for their loved ones as a matter of course, while embassies see their role as limited to assisting the accused mount a defense within the law of the country they are in, without assuming guilt or innocence. Corby was sentenced to 20 years in prison, reduced to 14 on an appeal last month. The controversy rages in Australia.

Baker’s lawyer Shunji Miyake had hoped to use Baker’s case as an opportunity to review the justice system and open a debate on procedures such as translations and video and audio taping of police interrogations. Baker has a strong regional English accent, which is sometimes difficult to understand. An expert witness evaluation found several gaps and mistranslations. For example, when asked if the suitcase was his, Nick said, “It ain’t mine,” which was interpreted as “I don’t mind.” Another time, Nick said that he was in possession of “antibiotics,” but in the translation antibiotics became “drugs banned in Japan,” says Miyake.

Other supporters wanted to throw light on Japan’s justice system. They cite Japan’s confession-based prosecutions, 23-day initial detention period and more than 99 percent conviction rate as proof that something is wrong and that Baker is but an innocent cog in an ever-grinding wheel determined to convict, whether innocent or guilty.

As the appeal machine rolled on, cracks began to appear in Baker’s supporters’ presentation of the case. The first revelation was that this was not Baker’s first trip to Japan—he had been here just two months before. His story that he had come on the trip of a lifetime to collect souvenirs lost credibility. When questioned about this inconsistency, Baker’s supporters refused to discuss his guilt or innocence, pleading instead for a “fair trial.”

Even though Iris Baker refused to release or translate the documents from the trial, a picture began to emerge of Baker’s testimony at odds with the supporters’ suppositions.

Baker’s defence documents revealed that Baker and Prunier went to Amsterdam and then to Belgium where Prunier was given a suitcase by members of the Israeli mafia. Prunier explained to Baker that he had to pay off a drug debt to the mafia and had to bring something, possibly sex pills, back from Japan. After checking in the case in Baker’s name, the mafia members threatened Baker that if he told about the plan his family would be killed, showing him three grisly murder-scene photographs to illustrate their point. Baker apparently wanted to get off of the flight when it transferred in London, but was persuaded to stay on the flight by Prunier. Nonetheless, he took the case through customs, initially saying the case was his until he changed his story.

Baker knew he was traveling with a drug dealer, he was threatened by the mafia, he knew that smuggling was involved and he knew that the case had been supplied for that purpose. It was no longer reasonable to assume that he was not involved in the crime.

As the verdict approached, more details became public: Contrary to Baker’s supporters’ claims, the three Belgium dupes had actually been convicted and sentenced to three years, and that evidence had been considered and rejected by the judge in Japan. Baker’s credibility, and that of his supporters, evaporated. Even Baker’s own MP, David Drew, would not give his support, citing that his findings “did not tally with the account on [Baker’s] website.” Initial hope that public pressure could save an innocent man turned into hostility when it was realized that it was in fact the public that had been duped.

“Baker’s supporters misrepresented the case to the media and the public to make him appear innocent. In doing so they wasted a lot of people’s hope, time, effort and money,” says Mark Devlin, publisher of Metropolis. Devlin was initially one of Baker’s supporters, but later became critical of the support group’s activities. “Baker’s supporters have tried to blame everyone for Baker’s predicament: the friend, the customs officer, the translators, the judge, the media, the British Embassy, the Japanese system—everyone except Baker himself.”

Iris Baker still refuses to discuss her son’s guilt or innocence, shifting the issue tirelessly to that of a “fair trial.” When questioned about her comments alleging a lack of government support, an official from the British Embassy noted that officials in Tokyo and London have helped the family in the UK and in Japan, worked to improve Baker’s conditions in prison, and arranged a pro bono lawyer to review the case. The Embassy even translated the original court documents into English (at no cost to the family). It is now clear that Iris Baker had the translated documents all along, but refused to release them.

The attempts by Baker’s lawyer’s to pin the blame on mistranslations were insufficient to work in his favor—Baker had the opportunity to correct and revise those mistranslations with his lawyer both before and during the trial. In the face of the content of Baker’s statements, which were all read in both Japanese and English, his defense lawyers had little chance of success.

Baker’s supporters say that irrespective of his guilt or innocence, he could not receive a fair trial. Critics of Japan’s justice system point to the more than 99 percent conviction rate as proof that it is flawed. In answering the question, “Why Is the Japanese Conviction Rate So High?”, J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School and Eric B. Rasmusen of Indiana University find three factors: Japanese prosecutors have limited resources and only pick cases that they are sure to win; judges look down on prosecutors who have not prepared their cases well; and the overall incarceration level in Japan is low. In 2003, 718 out of every 100,000 Americans were behind bars; in Japan the number was just 54—less than one thirteenth of the US rate.

Washington University in St. Louis has also compared conviction rates between the US and Japan: In US federal courts, prosecutors file charges against 42 percent of people arrested (with an 85 percent conviction rate). In Japan, in 1995, prosecutors filed charges against just 17.5 percent.

Even so, Amnesty International argues that many people who have been wrongly convicted in Japan are left in jail rather than pardoned.

In a system that cannot admit mistakes, the absense of any prisoners released for being wrongly convicted gives rise to the cruel logic that there are no miscarriages of justice.
In Japan, minor crimes often do not make it to court. Instead, plea bargains are arranged based on confession-and-apology. This compares to the UK and US where suspects usually plead innocent on the off-chance that they will be acquitted by a technicality or a sympathetic jury. In Japan, Baker’s insistence on innocence in the face of his apparent guilt coupled with his lack of remorse may have added to his original sentence.

Tama Miyake Lung

The question remains: Should a guilty man go free so that the conditions of others can be improved? Baker’s case is unlikely to change the Japanese system. The wider issues of the 23-day detention period or conditions in Japanese prisons were outside the scope of the appeal trial.
Baker’s supporters say they are satisfied that the case put the spotlight on Japan’s justice system, but at what cost? Detractors have pointed out that by playing to foreigners’ preconceptions of “barbaric” Japan the campaign unnecessarily reinforced negative stereotypes.

As an example, images of prison torture on Baker’s site did not actually happen to Baker (although it has happened to some prisoners), and some comments on Baker’s petition could be considered racist. Baker's detractors also note that the case will have a chilling effect on other claims of injustice that will now face a skeptical media and public.

On that bright Thursday afternoon, Baker’s fate rested only with the judge, Kenjiro Tao. The court rose as Tao entered, sat and started to read his statement in Japanese.

“The original sentence has been quashed.” Iris Baker gasped, but her hope was short-lived. The interpreter went on to say that a new sentence of 11 years would be applied.

“The drugs were skillfully and cleverly hidden and it must be taken into account that their amount was extremely large,” the judge said through the interpreter. “The defendant also does not seem to have reflected on the crime since then. On the other hand, we have found some circumstances favorable. He does not seem to be the mastermind, and his parents have been worried about him. The sentencing in the original judgment was too severe.” The court also reduced Baker’s fine from ¥5 million to ¥3 million and increased from ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 the amount of the fine Baker pays from each day of work in prison. It seemed that, lack of remorse aside, his mother’s pressure had nonetheless brought a reduction in his sentence. Iris continues to ask for donations on her website, a subject of some criticism from Baker’s detractors,
who believe that all facts should be made available when raising funds.

Baker shook his head and cried throughout—at one point he appeared to be shaking uncontrollably. As he was led away some of his supporters started to clap, presumably in an act of encouragement.

“Be strong, man,” one shouted as Baker passed in silence. Baker will most likely survive his experience, unlike his traveling companion Prunier who, dogged by personal issues, cocaine and alcohol addiction, killed himself by putting his head on a railway line in August 2004.

Having dropped his appeal to the Supreme Court, with time already served taken into account, Baker has eight years left to serve. After he has completed a third of his sentence in Japan, he can transfer to a British prison, probably by mid-2008.

Chris Snell offers Baker this advice on how to survive in the meantime, advice which it seems Baker could have used before his fateful trip to Japan in 2002: “I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. Nothing is ‘me’ and nothing is ‘mine.’ No one can destroy your self unless you let them.”

UPDATE: August 06, 2007 — David Drew email to Baker's support group

From: Steve Traulein, steve@metropolis.co.jp>
Date: Jul 19, 2007 16:15 PM
Subject: Nick Baker
To: drewd@parliament.uk

For the attention of Mr David Drew, Labour and Co-operative MP for the Stroud Constituency

Dear Mr Drew,

I am the Managing Editor of Metropolis, the leading English-language magazine in Japan. Metropolis is a 64-80 page weekly news, entertainment and city guide similar to London's TimeOut magazine. The magazine has 67,500 readers in the Tokyo area, covering a large part of the foreign community in Tokyo. Our website is at http://www.metropolis.co.jp We also run Japan Today, which is the world's largest website for news and discussion of news topics about Japan (http://www.japantoday.com)

As part of our coverage of issues of interest to the foreign community in Japan, on November 7, 2003 Metropolis ran a story about Nick Baker ("Trial and Error" http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/502/feature.asp), who was imprisoned for smuggling a large quantiy of durgs into Japan. After we investigated the case further our team found some discrepancies in Baker's story and, after Baker's appeal closed, we published a follow-up story on 18 November 2005 ("True Crime" http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/608/feature.asp). Our publisher, Mark Devlin, also wrote an editorial lamenting the witholding of information by Baker's support group concerning the circumstances of Baker's arrest from the media ("We, the Jury" http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/545/lastword.asp). All these articles also appeared on Japan Today and caused considerable discussion about Baker in the foreign community in Japan.

Recently, due to external claims regarding the quality of our sources, we have undertaken a review of the sources for the "True Crime" story, including revisiting the relevant court documents. In the story we wrote "Even Baker's own MP, David Drew, would not give his support, citing that his findings "did not tally with the account on [Baker's] website."  Our researcher had based that text on the following excerpt that was posted on the Justice For Nick Baker support site (the information has since been removed). According to the person who posted the information, they had sent you an email asking for your support for Baker's cause. In your reply you had said:

Retreived from justicefronickbaker.org  -  September 6, 2004

Thank you for your email on Nick Baker.  I am afraid that it is not true that I have not intervened over this case.  I have made representations up to an including the Foreign Secretary.  As a result Mr Baker is receiving extensive support from the FCO in Japan.  I have also worked extensively with James Gray, Mrs Iris Baker's, the mother of Nick Baker and we are well aware of all developments.

There are two aspects to this case.  First Nick's human rights. I accept that the Japanese gaol system is brutal and its legal system very different to our own.  There is a need for Mr Baker to receive wise counsel and to make sure that everything is translated into English so that he can conduct his defence appropriately.  

Second, however there is the part that the web site does not pick up but which I have informed Mrs Baker of on a number of occasions and that is that I have undertaken my own investigation by cross examining the Police in this country.  I am afraid that their findings do not tally with the comments on the web site and the case which is ongoing is subject to an international enquiry.

This is why I have urged that Mr Baker seeks clemency from the Japanese authorities as the best way forward in the hope that he can serve the rest of his sentence in this country.

Yours sincerely

David Drew MP for Stroud

Would it be possible for you to verify that you did indeed send this email to a member of Baker's support group around September 6 and, if possible, could you clarify what you meant by what you meant when you said that the police "findings do not tally with the comments on the web site"?

Thank you for your help.

Steve Trautlein
Managing Editor
Metropolis Magazine

....

From: FOWLES, Hilary FOWLESH@parliament.uk
Date: Jul 27, 2007 10:09 PM
Subject: Nick Baker
To: steve@metropolis.co.jp

Dear Mr Trautlein,

David Drew has asked me to respond to your e-mail of 19 July about Nick Baker. He has asked me to confirm that the statement attributed to him in your e-mail is correct and stands in its own right. Yours sincerely, Hilary Hilary Fowles

Caseworker to David Drew MP

01453 752684 (fax 01453 753756)

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