Japan’s longest-serving death row inmate sues government after exoneration

Legal team says prosecutor general’s remark calling exoneration ‘unacceptable’ is defamatory

Japan’s longest-serving death row inmate sues government after exoneration

By Saadet Gokce

ISTANBUL (AA) - A Japanese man, once the world's longest-serving death row inmate, is suing the government for defamation after the prosecutor general called his exoneration “unacceptable,” his legal team announced Thursday.

Professional boxer Iwao Hakamata was acquitted last October of a 1966 quadruple murder at a miso-making firm in Shizuoka province on Japan’s eastern coast. His senior colleague, the colleague’s wife, and their two children were killed. The court ruled that the evidence had been “fabricated,” according to Kyodo News Agency.

After the ruling, Prosecutor General Naomi Unemoto said the court’s decision had “many problems in its reasoning.”

Hakamata’s legal team argues that the prosecutor general’s remarks imply he was guilty and therefore amount to defamation. They are also seeking national redress for his wrongful conviction.

A Japanese court convicted Hakamata and sentenced him to death in 1980.

The 88-year-old had already spent 50 years in prison by the time of his release in 2014.

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