Japan | Prosecutors seek death penalty in Iwao Hakamada's retrial

TOKYO: Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday (May 22) sought the death penalty in the retrial of a man reputed to have been the world's longest-serving death row prisoner until his release in 2014, local media reported.

Former boxer Iwao Hakamada, now 88, spent nearly five decades on death row after being convicted in 1968 of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children.

But in 2014, he was freed and a retrial was ordered after a court said investigators could have planted evidence.

The retrial began in October after the Tokyo High Court reversed course and ordered the district court to retry Hakamada in March 2023, citing the unreliability of the main evidence used.

The high court said there was a strong possibility the five pieces of blood-stained clothing that Hakamata was alleged to have worn during the incident had been planted by investigators in the tank of miso soybean paste they were found in.

At the retrial on Wednesday in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, the prosecution argued that Hakamada's guilt could be proven "beyond reasonable doubt", the Asahi Shimbun daily said.

Prosecutors said Hakamada "committed the crimes for money" in their closing statements.

His defence lawyers are seeking an acquittal for Hakamada, whose case has become a famous saga in Japan. He will likely be acquitted, as the country's criminal procedure law says that a retrial will be opened if there is "clear evidence the accused is not guilty."

Japan is the only major industrialised democracy other than the United States to retain capital punishment, and the practice has broad public support.

Hakamada's supporters say his decades of detention, mostly in solitary confinement with the ever-present threat of execution, took a heavy toll on his mental health.

In a 2018 interview with AFP, Hakamada said he felt he was "fighting a bout every day".

He had initially denied the charges, but then confessed - following what he later described as a brutal police interrogation that included beatings.

His attempts to retract his confession were in vain and his original verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1980.

But Hakamada continued to maintain his innocence. His sister Hideko, now 91, has tirelessly pleaded with the public to review the case.

After a prolonged battle, a district court in Shizuoka granted a retrial in 2014 and issued a stay for Hakamada's incarceration and the death penalty.

Tokyo's High Court overturned the lower court ruling four years later.

But the legal back-and-forth wasn't over: In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the Tokyo High Court must reconsider its decision, and last year the High Court ordered a retrial.

Hakamada's plight has attracted deep public sympathy, with even national lawmakers forming a special group to offer their support.

Hakamada was exempted from attending the retrial proceedings due to his deteriorated mental state after having been incarcerated for such a long period

During the retrial, Hideko took the central role in defence of her sickly brother.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Agencies Staff, May 22, 2024

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