The Tokyo High Court yesterday ordered a retrial for an 87-year-old former boxer, dubbed the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, nearly six decades after he was convicted of murder.
Lawyers for Iwao Hakamada left the court after a brief session and unfurled banners reading “retrial” as supporters shouted: “Free Hakamada now.”
“I was waiting for this day for 57 years and it has come,” said Hakamada’s sister, Hideko Hakamada, who has campaigned tirelessly on her brother’s behalf.
Photo: AFP
Iwao Hakamada spent nearly five decades on death row and was certified the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, before a lower court ordered a retrial and freed him while his case proceeded.
He was sentenced to death in 1968 for robbing and murdering his boss, the man’s wife and their two teenage children.
He initially denied the accusations, but later confessed after what he subsequently claimed was a brutal police interrogation that included beatings.
His attempts to retract the confession were in vain and his verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1980.
A district court in the central city of Shizuoka granted a retrial in 2014, finding investigators could have planted evidence.
The Tokyo High Court overturned the lower court ruling four years later, and the case was sent to the Supreme Court on appeal.
Supreme Court judges ruled in 2020 that the Tokyo High Court must reconsider its decision.
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