The notions of justice - impartiality, due process, presumption of innocence, etc , unfortunately varies in different jurisdictions.
Most of the time there is no interactions with the law - out of sight out of mind which is half the problem.
Trigger warning - my post discusses an example of the legal treatment of stillbirth overseas
Yes we are well aware of this after a string of cautions from Seat Son - who is a lawyer working in the UAE, each time we visit him. These revolve around being extremely cautious and avoiding accidents, incidents or anything that might attract attention, not saying anything that could be misconstrued (eg “I’m sorry” which is often taken to be an admission of liability), and immediately contacting him for help. Also, and particularly hard for me, to shut up and defer to Mr Seat 0A to answer questions etc, even if it’s my actions that caused the incident. In fact most firms in the UAE employing expats also employ a well-connected Emirati as a “fixer”. All this person does is take important people out for coffee and dates to build and sweeten relationships - until there is an issue. Then the fixer steps in and hopefully smooths things over with the local authorities.
Here’s a sad example of the things mentioned by
@Quickstatus . A friend of Seat Son (Irish Expat) had the misfortune that his wife gave birth to a stillborn daughter a few months ago at 38 weeks. Instead of receiving the care and empathy usually shown in such devastatingly difficult circumstances in Western countries, he was told that he must report to the police station within 12 hrs of the birth for questioning. He was distraught of course, and also had a 2 year old son to make arrangements for. He was also worried about his legal position and asked Seat Son to go with him as his legal adviser. The thrust of the questioning seemed mainly to focus on the assumption by the local police that the stillbirth was in fact a deliberate late term abortion (illegal) of an undesirable female child, despite the hospital (a Western hospital, with expat doctors) furnishing a report that it was in their opinion a genuine stillbirth. He was eventually released, had to return twice more for further questioning and then a death certificate was issued and permit for repatriating the remains to Ireland.
I keep asking myself why Seat Son wants to live there, but I guess it’s golden handcuffs. I certainly would not want to live there and I feel anxious when I visit. For these sorts of reasons, I keep a Middle Eastern travel wardrobe of long, loose modest clothes, always have a headscarf to hand and rarely venture out without the ‘protection’ of my husband or my son. If it were not for my overwhelming desire to spend time with my son, I would really think twice about travelling here.
And this is why I find @drron’s experience so disturbing - we sort of expect that in the Middle East, but I for one did not expect that sort of treatment in Japan, for a relatively minor traffic incident. As many in here know, I have loved my 8 visits to Japan, and I have another booked for January 2025 - to Hokkaido
. I will for sure confine myself to public transport for this visit.
