Overview
- The man, identified as 77-year-old Kiyoshi Okawa, went missing from a Hakodate hospital after the district court approved a suspension of his detention for medical treatment on Sunday.
- Okawa was indicted on attempted murder charges on July 17 for an alleged June 15 attack in which his wife’s head was struck with a hammer.
- The Hakodate District Court revoked the detention suspension on the same day Okawa disappeared and the Hakodate prosecutors office and Hokkaido police are actively searching for him.
- Prosecutors said they initially did not immediately announce the disappearance because they judged the suspect posed no high danger to others, a decision the office has called regrettable as public concern grew.
- Under Japan’s Criminal Procedure Code, a 勾留執行停止 is a temporary halt to detention for urgent medical reasons and can be revoked by a court; this case raises questions about how patients under such orders are supervised in hospitals.