Muslims in Japan Sue After Documents Leaked Via P2P Last Year

Last year in Japan sensitive anti-terrorism police documents were leaked over the peer-to-peer network Winny.

Subsequently a number of muslims included in the probe had their personal information floating around the internet, not to mention the life complications that go along with being a terror suspect. But the AFP is reporting today that fourteen muslims have filed a lawsuit against the Tokyo and state governments over the matter.

The suit is for 154 million yen (or $1.9 million) and asserts that the investigations were illegal and “violated their freedom of faith.” Information in the documents includes their names, addresses, and photos. The groups lawyers claim that 98 percent of the nation’s muslims have been monitored.

While Tokyo police did admit that the documents included information of theirs, and apologize for the problems caused. But like any information leak on the net, it’s practically impossible to undo. Besides the documents potential dissemination on the net, according to Asahi Tokyo publisher Dai-san Shokan published a book including personal information from the leak, although it appears that publications was subsequently halted.

But damage has been done for many of these individuals, as one of them explained “I cannot even go back to my country because I may be detained as a suspect of terrorism. I want the Japanese police to fix my life.”

As for the leak, it is possible that it was unintentional as there has been a worm on the Winny network known to upload a computers files without the knowledge of the user.