#Hakamada Iwao

[radioshiga]

Promotor japonês pede desculpas pessoalmente a Hakamada

Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japão, 28 de novembro de 2024 (Reuters) – Um promotor-chefe do Japão pediu desculpas pessoalmente a Hakamada Iwao, um homem de 88 anos que foi absolvido em um retrial de um caso de assassinato ocorrido em 1966, após passar décadas no corredor da morte. Yamada Hideo, chefe do Escritório de Promotoria do Distrito de Shizuoka, visitou a casa de Hakamada em Hamamatsu na última…

[genkinahito]

Love is Outdated, Ken to Inori Hakamada Iwao no Shogai, Ame to Hikari, The Cats of Gokogu Shrine, Japanese Film Trailers

Welcome to the third and final post of the week. You can find part one here and part two here. I am continuing with my festival work and getting through films while also practicing Japanese. I really am improving and can go through whole chunks of films without subtitles. Having my friend teaching me, immersion, and using films really helps. That said, what I really want to improve is my ability…

[conatic]

Après 46 ans dans le couloir de la mort et une libération, il va peut-être finalement... être condamné à la peine capitale - La DH/Les Sports+

Source: dhnet

[beardedmrbean]

The world's longest-serving death row prisoner thanked his supporters for helping him achieve "complete victory" after a Japanese court last week overturned his decades-old murder conviction.

After a long fight for justice led by his sister, 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada was on Thursday declared innocent of the quadruple murder that he spent 46 years on death row for.

"Finally I have won full and complete victory," the former boxer told a group of supporters on Sunday in Shizuoka, the region southwest of Tokyo where the ruling was issued.

"I couldn't wait any longer" to hear the not-guilty verdict, said a smiling Hakamada, sporting a green hat.

"Thank you very much," he added, accompanied by his 91-year-old sister Hideko at the meeting, which was shown on Japanese television.

Japan and the United States are the only major industrialised democracies to retain capital punishment, which has broad support among the Japanese public.

Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

Decades of detention – mostly in solitary confinement with the threat of execution constantly looming over him – have taken a toll on Hakamada's mental health.

His lawyer and supporters have described him as "living in a world of fantasy".

Hakamada was released in 2014 pending the retrial but rarely speaks publicly.

Despite the retrial verdict, his acquittal isn't finalised – prosecutors reportedly have until October 10 to decide whether to appeal the Shizuoka District Court's ruling.

But they may face an uphill battle, as the court delivered a sweeping rebuke of the prosecution's arguments, saying that investigators fabricated key pieces of evidence.

Hakamada's initial confessions of having robbed and murdered his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children were obtained through "inhumane" interrogations and mental and physical torture, making them invalid, the ruling said.

Blood-stained clothes used to incriminate him were also ruled a set-up. The court said investigators had put blood on them and planted them in a tank of miso fermented soybean paste to be discovered.

[lejournaldupeintre]

A Japanese police chief apologizes to a man acquitted after 50 years on death row

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese police chief on Monday apologized in person to Iwao Hakamada for his decades-long suffering that started from an overbearing investigation and wrongful conviction that had kept him on death row until last month, when he was acquitted in a retrial. The 88-year-old Hakamada, a former boxer, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court,which said police and prosecutors had…

[idagnyheter]

Friad efter 58 år – fick ursäkt av polischef

En polischef i Japan bad i måndags 88-årige Iwao Hakamada om ursäkt – som var oskyldigt dömd i nästan 50 år.– Vi är fruktansvärt ledsna, sa polischefen och lovade en “grundig och ordentlig utredning”. Polischefen Takayoshi Tsuda böjde sig djupt inför Hakamada i sitt hem i Hamamatsu, centrala Japan, och bad om ursäkt för det “obeskrivliga psykiska lidande” som Hakamada orsakat av den felaktiga…

[allthenewzworld]

A Japanese police chief apologized in person to 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada for a wrongful conviction that had kept him on death row for 50 years.

Hakamada, a former boxer, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court, which said police and prosecutors had collaborated to fabricate and plant evidence against him, and forced him to confess with violent, hourslong closed interrogations.

Hakamada was the world's longest-serving death row prisoner and only the fifth death row inmate to be acquitted in a retrial in postwar Japan.

Read more at link in bio.

[technophia]

Liberan al japonés que más tiempo ha pasado en el corredor de la muerte: ¿por qué los presos allí pierden la cabeza?

Iwao Hakamada ha salido del corredor de la muerte japonés con 88 años. Es lógico que tenga algo de demencia. Pero allí hay muchos más motivos para perder la cabeza. Incluso más que en Estados Unidos, donde no son pocos. Iwao Hakamada, el hombre que más tiempo ha pasado en el corredor de la muerte japonés, acaba de ser puesto en libertad, tras 56 años entre rejas. Tiene 88 años y es lógico que a…

[radioshiga]

Polícia japonesa se desculpa por condenação injusta

Shizuoka, Japão, 10 de outubro de 2024 – Agência de Notícias Kyodo – O chefe da polícia da prefeitura de Shizuoka, Takayoshi Tsuda, anunciou nesta quarta-feira (9) que pretende oferecer um pedido formal de desculpas em nome da corporação a Hakamada Iwao, ex-condenado à morte recentemente inocentado após 58 anos de luta judicial. Hakamada, hoje com 88 anos, foi sentenciado à pena capital em 1968…

[shirotakaishida]

要求檢方不要對袴田巖無罪釋放的判決提出上訴！ | 國際特赦組織台灣分會

[nextcinemastudios]

Man Is Acquitted In Japan After Spending More Than 40 Years On Death Row

A former inmate in Japan is getting a fresh start after spending more than 40 years on death row. On Thursday (Sept. 26), Iwao Hakamada won a retrial for his quadruple- murder conviction. He is 88 years old. Here’s Why The Court Acquitted The Death Row Inmate According to the BBC, a Japanese court kept him behind bars after finding him guilty of killing his miso factory boss, the man’s wife, and…

[head-post]

Japanese man acquitted of murder after spending 46 years in prison

In a case that lasted nearly 60 years, the Shizuoka District Court has acquitted former professional boxer Iwao Hakamata. The man spent a record amount of time on death row awaiting execution for a crime he claimed he did not commit.

Iwao Hakamada was arrested in 1966 on charges of robbing and killing his boss, his wife and two children. After 20 days of relentless interrogation, Hakamada confessed to the crime. However, he later claimed in court that he was forced to confess under torture.

The former professional boxer spent 46 years on death row – believed to be the longest time spent on death row of any prisoner in the world – until he was released in 2014 when new evidence emerged and a retrial was scheduled.

Hakamada has consistently maintained his innocence and said investigators coerced him into confessing, while his lawyers have argued that police fabricated evidence.

There was no word on whether prosecutors would appeal the verdict, which was reported by Kyodo news agency and other Japanese media. Hakamada’s lawyers urged prosecutors not to challenge the verdict given his age.

Fabricated evidence

Shizuoka District Court presiding judge Koshi Kunii acknowledged that three pieces of evidence were fabricated, including Hakamada’s “confession” and items of clothing that prosecutors claimed he was wearing at the time of the killings.

His 91-year-old sister Hideko Hakamada, who has tirelessly advocated for her brother, told reporters before the verdict was announced Thursday:

For so long we have fought a battle that has felt endless. But this time, I believe it will be settled.

Prosecutors again demanded the death penalty, but legal experts suggested Hakamada would be acquitted, pointing to four other retrials of death row inmates in postwar Japan that were overturned.

Hakamada, whose physical and mental health had deteriorated during his long incarceration, was not present at Thursday’s ruling and was represented by his sister in the retrial.

The outcome of the case hinged on the reliability of blood-stained clothing that prosecutors said Hakamada was wearing at the time of the murder at a miso factory in central Japan where he was employed.

Everything depended on the DNA test

Scheduling a retrial in March 2023 after years of litigation, Tokyo’s highest court said there was a strong possibility that the clothes were planted by investigators in a miso tank. Defence lawyers said DNA tests on the clothes proved the blood did not belong to Hakamada.

The high court initially decided not to reopen Hakamada’s case, which has become a celebrity for death penalty opponents, but reversed its decision after the apex court ordered it to review the case in 2020.

On Thursday, hundreds of people lined up outside the county courthouse in hopes of getting a seat on the public gallery, while supporters put up signs demanding Hakamada’s acquittal.

Those sentenced to death in Japan – one of two G7 countries along with the United States that retain the death penalty – are notified of their execution by hanging just hours beforehand and are not allowed to talk to their lawyers or families. The last conversation is usually with a Buddhist priest. Boram Jang, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said:

We are overjoyed by the court’s decision to exonerate Iwao Hakamada.

The death penalty enjoys strong popular support in Japan. According to a 2019 government survey, 80% of respondents believe the death penalty is “inevitable,” with only 9% in favor of abolishing it.

During the long wait for execution, Hakamata entered The Guinness World Records as the person who spent the longest time on death row. In 2011, his name entered the world history as a symbol of the injustice of the judicial system.

Read more HERE

[hotnew-pt]

O ex-boxeador japonês Iwao Hakamada foi finalmente absolvido após 46 anos no corredor da morte #ÚltimasNotícias #França

Hot News Como ex-boxeador profissional, Iwao Hakamada perseguiu recordes, mas teria passado sem este. O homem do mundo que passou mais anos no corredor da morte, o japonês de 88 anos, dos quais 46 aguardavam a aplicação da pena de morte, foi definitivamente absolvido esta quinta-feira. Ele era acusado desde setembro de 1968 do assassinato de seu chefe, de sua esposa e de seus dois filhos, em…

[beardedmrbean]

CHIBA, Japan (AP) — An Australian accused of smuggling amphetamines in a suitcase appeared in a Japanese court on Monday nearly two years after her arrest, saying she is innocent and that she was tricked into carrying them as part of an online romance scam.

Donna Nelson from Perth, Australia, was arrested at Japan’s Narita International Airport just outside Tokyo when customs officials found about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of stimulants, or phenylaminopropane, hidden in a double-bottom suitcase she was carrying.

Nelson, 58, said she received the suitcase from an acquaintance of a man she met on social media in 2020, and brought it from Laos to Tokyo as instructed. She was supposed to meet up with the man in Japan but he never showed up, according to prosecutors.

She was arrested on the spot and later charged with violating the stimulants control and customs laws. She has been in custody for nearly two years.

Monday’s trial comes just weeks after the recent acquittal of an 88-year-old former boxer, Iwao Hakamada, who was on death row for about half a century on wrongful murder convictions. That case rekindled concerns about Japan’s largely closed-door investigation processes and lengthy trials.

Nelson, in a brief statement at the Chiba District Court near Tokyo, said she did not know the drugs were hidden in the suitcase and that she was carrying them for a man she thought she loved. The man told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business and paid for her trip to Japan via Laos, her lawyers said.

Prosecutors acknowledged the case is linked to a romance scam but accused Nelson of smuggling the drugs, claiming she knew the contents of the suitcase.

A verdict is expected on Dec. 4.

Nelson entered the courtroom escorted by a pair of uniformed guards who removed her handcuffs and a rope around her waist as she took a seat to stand trial. She repeatedly looked toward her daughters who were seated in the audience.

It was an emotional moment for her and her family to see each other for the first time since her arrest.

One of Nelson’s daughters, Kristal Hilaire, said she wants the court to know her mother is a good person.

“She thought she was coming to Japan for her love story. She didn’t have any other intentions other than that. And that’s what we need everyone to know and hear at the court this week,” Hilaire said.

The daughter added that the family is “just trying to be strong because when mom locks her eyes with us, I want her to feel our strength and that she will feed off that.”

Nelson’s lawyer Rie Nishida said that customs officials' limited English-language ability might have led to mistranslations and the accusation that Nelson knew what she was carrying.

In Monday's trial, a customs official testified that his colleague was mainly asking questions to Nelson in English but ended up calling an interpreter and what she had said earlier was only summed up in Japanese during an interview that was not recorded.

Nishida asked the judges and a jury panel of citizens to carefully listen to Nelson, who she said was finally given a capable court interpreter, to make a fair judgement.