TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Security camera footage showing a Sri Lankan woman complaining of declining health before her death in an immigration facility in central Japan has been publicly released for the first time by lawyers representing her family.
Roughly seven minutes of a five-hour video taken of Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali, who died at the age of 33 while being held at the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau in March 2021, was shown at a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
Some of the released footage taken less than two weeks before her death shows that Wishma, bedridden, begged officers to take her to hospital after telling them she is unable to move or eat.
Wishma arrived in Japan in 2017 as a student but was taken into custody at the immigration facility in August 2020 for overstaying her visa.
Wishma's family is seeking damages from the Japanese government over her death, alleging she was illegally detained and died due to a lack of necessary medical care. ■