Subject ambiguity in 大阪府の警察は、樋田容疑者を警察署から逃げた容疑で調べていますが、何も話していません。


From [this
article](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011650901000/k10011650901000.html):

> 大阪府の警察は、樋田容疑者を警察署から逃げた容疑 **で** 調べていますが、何も話していません。  
>  Osaka police are investigating Hida on suspicion of escaping from the
> police station, but are saying nothing.

That was my translation until I read an English version of the story. I
assumed the police were investigating but that 何も話していません suggested that they
weren't prepared to talk about it at the moment. However, the English article
implied that it was the suspect who was 何も話していません. Is this sentence ambiguous
or am I missing an obvious clue which tells me that the suspect is the subject
of 話す and not the police?

I was also unsure about my translation of ...容疑で調べています as "investigating on
suspicion of ...". The reason I worry is that they surely already know it was
him who escaped.




Yes the subject of 話す is 樋田容疑者, but there is no obvious grammatical clue, so
you have to determine the correct subject from the context. If you read
several similar news articles regarding police investigation, you'll soon
notice that ～と話しています is used very often to report the suspect's attitude after
the arrest. (But I admit this sentence may be trickier than the one in the
original article. 黙秘 is a relatively difficult word, but you at least don't
have to worry about who is doing it.)

At least in Japan, 容疑 is always used like this even when the police is 100%
confident. Legally speaking, police investigators cannot judge the fact. All
they can do instead is to investigate the case, "suspect," and send the
suspected person to court, where the official judgement will be made. Until
then, the person will be called 容疑者, and what they did is called 容疑.




We commonly understand the subject of 何も話していません is the suspect from the
context. That implies that the suspect is refusing to answer. Of course, it
can be Osaka police, but in the case, we would say 警察は(それについて)何も話していません(Osaka
police doesn't talk about investigating Hida).

As for your second question, even if it is obviously a crime, it is a
suspicion until it is convicted in a court.

