Wednesday, January 23, 2008

苗場スキー場での事件

2007年2月20日、日本の苗場スキーリゾートで悪夢は起こった。スキースロープの間の小さな小道で子供が転んだ事がきっかけだった。オーストラリア人のモヒカン頭の男が「どけ!」と激しい口調で私の家族に向かって暴言し、私に暴行を振った男は、スキーインストラクターであった。

ある香港の建築家と彼の家族は、インターネットを通し彼らのインストラクターとして、この男を雇った。この会社の名前はキャニオンズ XXX XXX、そして男の名前はデイミアン XXX XXXと言い、日本のスキー関係のウェブサイトでも実際に検索できる。。。なんて便利な世の中になった事か。

朝滑りを何度かした後、私の家族はホテルのタワー6をスキーして横切り、ドラゴンドラに乗るためにNo4のリフトに向かった。チェアリフトNo4の到着地点は狭いため、我々は少人数のグループに分かれ、2人のスキーインストラクターに先導してもらうことにした。私の妻と彼女の妹は小さい子供が一緒だったので、先に行かせた。私は、自分の兄と彼のスノーボード仲間を待っていた。兄が到着地点に着いたとき、ゴンドラへの行き方を教え、妻と子供たちの方へ向かった。

私がモヒカン頭の男が私の妻とその妹、そして子供たちに向かって叫んでるのを見たのは、午前11時ごろだった。二箇所のスロープをつなぐ狭い小道に全員が居て、モヒカン頭の男が数メートル先のところから叫んでいるのを聞いた。私は何が起こってるのか聞いた。
先ず最初にモヒカン男の発した言葉が「てめえには関係ない」だった。(日本語訳では率直に伝わらないが、英語ではタブーとされてる言葉)私はモヒカン男に「これは私の妻と子供たちだ。私は何が起こった聞いてるだけだ。何故彼女らに向かって暴言を吐くのか?」と聞いた。その時点で男の乱暴な言葉使いと悪態に、妻も子供たちも怯え、「もういいわ、行きましょう」と言って、逃げるように滑り去った。
彼らが去って間もなく、多分数秒後だった、モヒカン男が私に「俺とやるか?」と突然自分のスキー靴を外し、私にのしかかって来て、そのまま脇に押し倒された。突然の事で、全くの無防備だった。私はスキーもゴーグルもポールも持ったままの状態で倒れ、男の左手で胸を押し付けられ、彼は私の顔を殴りかかってきた。手足もふさがったままで、殴られるのを遮ろうとするのが精一杯だった。4,5発殴られ、男はたち上がり何も無かったかの様に、スキーを履いて去ろうとした。私は男に向かって「なんでこんな事するんだ?野蛮人」と叫んだ。男は立ち止まり「またやりたいか?」と言ってきた。私は男に向かって「お前は馬鹿げている」と言った。そして男は滑り降りて行ってしまった。
私が起き上がろうとした時、兄が驚いて何が起きたのかと聞いてきた。「あの男に殴られたけど、数発殴れただけだから大丈夫だと思う」と答えた。すると兄が私の顔を見て「いや、顔が腫れあがってひどい状態だ」と言い「警察を呼ぼう、どんな顔をしてた?」と聞いてきた。私は兄に男はモヒカン頭で、オーストラリアのアクセントで話し、黒のスキーウエアを着ていたと言った。彼は彼の娘と妻を置いて、一人でその男を捜しに行った。私はゴーグルを拾い、その男を捜しに兄を追った。
私の兄は、スノーボーダーでとても速く滑るので、遠くから彼のスキーウエアを目当てに追いかけるのが精一杯だった。右目瞼から出血していて、左の額はオレンジの様に腫れあがり、左目尻も腫れていて、あまり視界がきかなかった。兄がドラゴンドラに辿り着いた時、モヒカン男は彼の客とスキー場を去ろうとしていた。兄がどうにか彼を捕まえようとしたとき、モヒカン男の友人が兄をつかみ、後ろから羽交い絞めにしてきた。
モヒカン男は、兄に向かって押し倒すか殴りかかる勢いだった。しかし断言はできない。私のスキーの腕前は中級なので、兄に追いつこうと必死で滑ってはいたが、限られた視野でコントロールを失い、男が兄に何かしようとする前に、突発的にモヒカン男の方に突っ込んでしまった。モヒカン男と私が地面に転がり、気が付くとモヒカン男が私の上に乗り、また地面に押し付けられてしまった。
男は突然起き上がり、何も無かったかの様に立ち去ろうとした。私は男をどこにも行かせまいと彼を追った。男に警察を呼んだからそれまで待った方が良いと警告した。
そこには沢山の人が居て、誰かがスキーパトロールと警察を呼んだらしい。パトロールが来て、私に事情を聞いていた間に、モヒカン男は逃げてしまった。10分程して、警察が到着し、その後20分以上経ってモヒカン男が戻ってきた。

モヒカン男が現場から逃げ去り、彼の居場所が分かるまでに30分以上かかった。男の友人(先ほど私が衝突した時に、兄を羽交い絞めにした)がモヒカン男の携帯に3度か4度電話して話をしていたようだった。3度目か4度目の電話で、友人がモヒカンはパトロール室で待っていると私達に言ったので、私と兄は警察と一緒にそこまで行った。
パトロール室に着いた時、モヒカン男は隅に座っていた。私達が部屋に入ると、男は外に出て、誰かと外で話しをしていた。私達は警察官と話をしていて、何が起こったのか説明していたので、モヒカン男が誰と話していたのか見えなかった。
私の怪我は、顔と左の膝と足に深い切り傷が出来ていた。顔はとても腫れあがり、殴られた後で小さな切り傷や引っかき傷が何箇所にもあった。
2007年2月20日、この事件の報告書をそして翌日、21日には別の警察官が調査書を作成した。両方の書類はとても良く似ていた。通訳の人から大まかな意味は教えてもらったが詳細が不明だったので、それに署名をする事ができなかった。私は自分の弁護士か中国大使館がこの書類をチェックして問題が無いか確認できるまでは署名しないと警察官に伝えた。警察官は、私の状況を理解してくれ、検察に送る前に必要な書類を全てそろえると約束してくれた。

Naeba Case - English version

My horrible experience happened on 20th Feb 2007 at the Naeba Ski Resort in Japan. It all started because a kid fell down on a small path between the two ski slopes. This Australian mohawk shouted "Get out of the way!" who later on verbally abuse my family and attacked me turned out to be a ski instructor who was on a job.

This Hong Kong architect and his family employed their ski instructor through the internet. The company, Canyons xxx xxx, and the guy, Damian xxx xxx, were actually found on one of the Japanese ski websites... how convenient.

After a few morning runs, my family started to ski pass the Hotel's Tower 6 to take the No. 4 chair lift over to the Dragondora gondola. The got off area at No. 4 chair lift was small, and we decided to split into smaller groups with our 2 ski instructors in front to lead the way. My wife and her sister with a few kids went first and I stayed behind to wait for my brother and his snow boarding group. when my brother arrived at the got off area, I showed him the way to the gondola and took off for my wife and kids.

It was at around 11:00am when I saw and heard a man with a mohawk screaming at my wife, her sister and the kids. They were all in a very narrow path between the slopes, and I heard the man with the mohawk swearing from a few meters away. I stopped and asked what was going on. The very first sentence this mohawk replied was "None of your fucking business." I then, said “They are my wife and children and I just want to know what's going on. Why are you swearing at them?” At that point, my wife said "Its ok, let's go." then they skiied down with the kids as the guy was becoming verbally abusive, and they were all very frightened. Shortly after they left, and it was may be a few seconds after, the mohawk then said to me “You want to fuck with me?” He then pushed me on to the side of the path, took off his skis and came at me. It was all very sudden, and I was totally unprepared. I was laying on the side of the slope with my skis, goggles, and poles. He pushed me down to the slope with his left hand on my chest, and punched my face. I was totally unprepared with my skis and poles stuck on my hands and feet. All I could do was trying to block and shift from being punched. After 4 to 5 punches, he then stopped, stood up, put back on his skis and skied away as if nothing happened. I then shouted to him: “ what is wrong with you? are you barbarian?” He then stopped and looked back to me and said: “do you what to start again?”; I said: “you are ridiculous.” After that he skied down and went away.

As I was trying to get up, my older brother arrived and asked what happened. I told him: "The guy just hit me, but I am ok. It was just a few punches, I think I'm ok.” He then looked at my face and said: “No, it looks is very serious and it's all swollen up.” He then said: “We have to call the police, what does he look like?” I told my brother that he is a mohawk, had an Australian accent and was in a black ski suit. He then left his daughter and ex-wife and skied down the slope to find the guy. I followed my brother to find the guy after I picked up my goggles and beanie.

My brother snowboarded down very fast, and I could only follow him in a distance by recognizing his skiwear. I couldn't see very well as I had blood from my right eyelid, my left forehead was all swollen like an orange, and my left eye corner was also swollen up. When my brother got down to the Dragondora gondola, the mohawk was trying to leave with his customers. My brother was able to hold on to him, but the mohawk’s friend grabbed my brother, and bear hugged him from behind. The Mohawk was facing my brother and was about to punch or push my brother, I cannot really tell. I am a medium skier skiing very fast trying to follow my brother. I lost control with limited vision and crashed on to the mohawk by accident just before he did something bad to my brother. The mohawk and I tumbled on the ground for a few seconds, and when we were stabled and the tumbling stopped, the Mohawk guy was on top of me and I was again pinned on the ground. He suddenly walked away as if he were all sobered up and was trying to escape. I followed him and stopped him from going anywhere. I told him I am calling the police and warned him that he better stayed there to wait until the police come.

There were many people there and I don’t know who called the ski patrol and the police, but when the patrol came and asking what happened, the mohawk managed to escape while I was talking to the ski patrol. We waited for around 10 minutes before the police arrived and waited another 20 minutes or more for the mohawk to come back.

The mohawk disappeared from the crash scene for more then 30 minutes before his friend told us where he was. His friend who bear hugged my brother from his back before I crashed, called the mohawk and talked on his mobile phone for 3 or 4 times after he disappeared. After the 3rd or 4th call, his friend finally told us that mohawk is waiting at the patrol station. So my brother and I went down to the patrol station followed by the police.

When I got to the patrol station, the mohawk was there sitting in the corner. As we walked in, he walked out the patrol station and talked to someone outside. I was all hold up talking to the police and explaining what happened, and I didn’t have a chance to look at who the mohawk was talking to during that time, and the last time I saw the mohawk was in the patrol station before he walked out.

My injuries were mostly on my face with a deep cut on my left knee and legs. My face was very swollen with some small cuts and scrapes from the punches.

I have made one police statement on the 20 Feb 2007, and another police investigator’s statement on 21 Feb 2007. They are both very similar, but I cannot sign them as I only understood the meaning of the statement from the interpreter, but not the wordings of the statement. I told the police that I cannot sign until my lawyer or the Chinese Embassy says ok to the statements. The police understood and accepted my difficulties, and they said they would proceed with the necessary procedures and get all necessary statements before sending them over to the prosecutor.

Police Report (case no. 124)

The Naeba police filed this case under case no. 124 in Feb 2007. However, I am sorry that I am not able to post the official report on the internet for viewing.