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Man acquitted of 1966 murder case files damages suit

SHIZUOKA, Japan, Oct. 9 Kyodo - Lawyers for Iwao Hakamata, a former death-row inmate acquitted in a 2024 retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder, head for the Shizuoka District Court in the central Japan city on Oct. 9, 2025, to file damages lawsuit against the state and Shizuoka Prefecture over fabricated evidence. The filing was performed by his lawyers as he has difficulty communicating due to post-incarceration syndrome. (Kyodo)

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Man acquitted of 1966 murder case files damages suit

Lawyers for Iwao Hakamata, a former death-row inmate acquitted in a 2024 retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder, head for the Shizuoka District Court in the central Japan city on Oct. 9, 2025, to file damages lawsuit against the state and Shizuoka Prefecture over fabricated evidence. The filing was performed by his lawyers as he has difficulty communicating due to post-incarceration syndrome.

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Man acquitted of 1966 murder case files damages suit

Lawyers for Iwao Hakamata, a former death-row inmate acquitted in a 2024 retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder, head for the Shizuoka District Court in the central Japan city on Oct. 9, 2025, to file damages lawsuit against the state and Shizuoka Prefecture over fabricated evidence. The filing was performed by his lawyers as he has difficulty communicating due to post-incarceration syndrome.

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Visit of Minister Gérald Darmanin to Arles Central Prison

Gerald Darmanin presents a medal to the prison guard taken hostage in January 2025 by an inmate at Arles prison, France on February 14, 2025. Visit by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of State, Garde des Sceaux, Minister of Justice, to the Arles central prison in the Bouches-du-Rhone region. Photo by Laurent Coust/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Visit of Minister Gérald Darmanin to Arles Central Prison

View of the medal to be presented by Gerald Darmanin to a prison guard taken hostage in January 2025 by an inmate in Arles, France on February 14, 2025. Visit by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of State, Garde des Sceaux, Minister of Justice, to the Arles central prison in the Bouches-du-Rhone region. Photo by Laurent Coust/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Visit of Minister Gérald Darmanin to Arles Central Prison

Gerald Darmanin presents a medal to the prison guard taken hostage in January 2025 by an inmate at Arles prison, France on February 14, 2025. Visit by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of State, Garde des Sceaux, Minister of Justice, to the Arles central prison in the Bouches-du-Rhone region. Photo by Laurent Coust/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Visit of Minister Gérald Darmanin to Arles Central Prison

Gerald Darmanin greets the prison guard taken hostage by an inmate in January 2025 at the Arles prison, France on February 14, 2025. Visit by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of State, Garde des Sceaux, Minister of Justice, to the Arles central prison in the Bouches-du-Rhone region. Photo by Laurent Coust/ABACAPRESS.COM

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French Justice Minister Migaud Visits Paris-La-Sante Prison - Paris

Newly appointed French Minister of Justice Didier Migaud (L) listens to an inmate next to director of the Prison de la Sante Bruno Clement-Petremann as he tours the Prison de la Sante (Paris-La Sante) in Paris, on September 24, 2024. Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT/Pool/ABACAPRESS.COM

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French Justice Minister Migaud Visits Paris-La-Sante Prison - Paris

Newly appointed French Minister of Justice Didier Migaud (L) listens to an inmate next to director of the Prison de la Sante Bruno Clement-Petremann as he tours the Prison de la Sante (Paris-La Sante) in Paris, on September 24, 2024. Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT/Pool/ABACAPRESS.COM

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Peru's ex-president Fujimori released from prison after Constitutional Court ruling

STORY: Peru's ex-president Fujimori released from prison after Constitutional Court ruling SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 6, 2023 DATELINE: Dec. 8, 2023 LENGTH: 00:01:16 LOCATION: Lima CATEGORY: POLITICS SHOTLIST: 1. various of Fujimori leaving prison 2. various of Fujimori's supporters STORYLINE: Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori left prison Wednesday, where he was serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity, after the Constitutional Court (TC) issued a resolution on Tuesday ordering his "immediate release." Fujimori walked out of the gates of Barbadillo Prison, located in Lima's Ate district, at 6:30 p.m. local time (2330 GMT), and was met by his family members Keiko and Kenji Fujimori. Shortly before his release, the National Penitentiary Institute confirmed via social media that "in compliance with the TC ruling that provides for the immediate release of the inmate Alberto Fujimori, and after processing the document in accordance with internal protocols, it will proceed with the execution of t

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AUM trial

TOKYO, Japan - Photo shows two buses, each believed to be carrying a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, entering the Tokyo District Court on Feb. 3, 2014. The court in a rare move summoned a death row inmate, Yoshihiro Inoue, as a witness in the trial of Makoto Hirata, following the questioning of another death row inmate in January.

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AUM trial

TOKYO, Japan - A police vehicle leads two buses, each believed to be carrying a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, as the convoy heads to the Tokyo District Court on Feb. 3, 2014. The court in a rare move summoned a death row inmate, Yoshihiro Inoue, as a witness in the trial of Makoto Hirata, following the questioning of another death row inmate in January.

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Ex-inmate sets up NPO to help other convicts

TOKYO, Japan - Hiroshi Igarashi (C), a former inmate who launched the nonprofit organization "Mother House" to assist convicts and those released from prisons, shares a light hearted moment with priest Hideo Kato (L) and friar Hernandez, both of whom he was greatly influenced by, at a church in Tokyo. Igarashi set up the NPO in 2012 after he was released from a prison in late 2011 after a total of some 20 years of detention. (Photo by Toshihiro Ariyoshi)

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Ex-death row inmate urges end to death penalty in Japan

SHIZUOKA, Japan - Iwao Hakamada, a former death row inmate who was freed in March 2014 after nearly 48 years in prison following a court decision to reopen his case, seeks an end to Japan's death penalty during an event in Shizuoka, central Japan, on Nov. 24, 2014, as his elder sister Hideko looks on.

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Former death row inmate attends meeting against death penalty

TOKYO, Japan - Iwao Hakamada (R), a former death row inmate who was freed in March 2014 after nearly 48 years in prison following a court decision to reopen his case, and his sister Hideko, attend a civic meeting seeking an end to the death penalty, in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Oct. 11, 2014. Hakamada, a 78-year-old former professional boxer, was sentenced to death for the murder of four members of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966, but was freed after the Shizuoka District Court approved DNA test results that showed blood found on five items of clothing said to have been worn by the culprit was not Hakamada's.

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Former death row inmate attends meeting against death penalty

TOKYO, Japan - Iwao Hakamada (R), a former death row inmate who was freed in March 2014 after nearly 48 years in prison following a court decision to reopen his case, and his sister Hideko, attend a civic meeting seeking an end to the death penalty, in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Oct. 11, 2014. Hakamada, a 78-year-old former professional boxer, was sentenced to death for the murder of four members of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1966, but was freed after the Shizuoka District Court approved DNA test results that showed blood found on five items of clothing said to have been worn by the culprit was not Hakamada's.

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Former death-row inmate Hakamada hospitalized

NAGOYA, Japan - File photo shows Iwao Hakamada, a 78-year-old former death-row inmate who was released following a court decision in March 2014 to reopen the 1966 murder case that led to his conviction. Hakamada, a former professional boxer, has been hospitalized for pneumonia in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, his lawyers said Aug. 29, 2014.

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Japan hangs man

TOKYO, Japan - Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki tells a press conference at the ministry in Tokyo on June 26, 2014, that he ordered the execution earlier that day of a male death-row inmate, Masanori Kawasaki, at the Osaka Detention House.

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Court decides not to reopen 1961 murder case for death-row inmate

NAGOYA, Japan - Izumi Suzuki (C), chief lawyer for 88-year-old death-row inmate Masaru Okunishi, speaks to reporters in Nagoya on May 28, 2014, after the Nagoya High Court decided not to retry Okunishi for the 1961 poisoning murders of five women in Nabari, Mie, Prefecture. The court said Okunishi had no case to seek a retrial because the evidence and arguments presented to the court were the same as in his previous application.

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Death-row inmate freed after 48 years of detention

TOKYO, Japan - A car carrying Iwao Hakamada, 78, leaves the Tokyo Detention House (back) on March 27, 2014, after the Shizuoka District Court decided earlier in the day to reopen a 1966 murder case, suspend his death sentence and permit his release. The court said there is a possibility that investigative authorities fabricated incriminating evidence.

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Death-row inmate freed after 48 years of detention

TOKYO, Japan - Iwao Hakamada, 78, gets into a car after being released from the Tokyo Detention House on March 27, 2014, after the Shizuoka District Court decided earlier in the day to reopen a 1966 murder case, suspend his death sentence and permit his release. The court said there is a possibility that investigative authorities fabricated incriminating evidence.

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Death-row inmate freed after 48 years of detention

TOKYO, Japan - Iwao Hakamada (L), 78, accompanied by his sister Hideko (R), 81, leaves the Tokyo Detention House on March 27, 2014, after the Shizuoka District Court decided earlier in the day to reopen a 1966 murder case, suspend his death sentence and permit his release. The court said there is a possibility that investigative authorities fabricated incriminating evidence.

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Death-row inmate freed after 48 years of detention

TOKYO, Japan - Iwao Hakamada (L), 78, accompanied by his sister Hideko (R), 81, leaves the Tokyo Detention House on March 27, 2014, after the Shizuoka District Court decided earlier in the day to reopen a 1966 murder case, suspend his death sentence and permit his release. The court said there is a possibility that investigative authorities fabricated incriminating evidence.

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Death-row inmate freed after 48 years of detention

TOKYO, Japan - Iwao Hakamada (L), 78, accompanied by his sister Hideko (R), 81, leaves the Tokyo Detention House on March 27, 2014, after the Shizuoka District Court decided earlier in the day to reopen a 1966 murder case, suspend his death sentence and permit his release. The court said there is a possibility that investigative authorities fabricated incriminating evidence.

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AUM trial

TOKYO, Japan - Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows two buses, each believed to be carrying a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, with a police vehicle leading the convoy, leaving the Tokyo Detention House for the Tokyo District Court on Jan. 21, 2014. Heavy security was provided to transport Tomomasa Nakagawa, a death-row inmate, and Makoto Hirata, who turned himself in to police after nearly 17 years on the run. Nakagawa attended the trial of Hirata, charged with involvement in the abduction and confinement of a Tokyo notary public, as a witness.

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AUM trial

TOKYO, Japan - Two buses, each believed to be carrying a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, enter the Tokyo District Court on Jan. 21, 2014. Heavy security was provided to transport Tomomasa Nakagawa, a death-row inmate, and Makoto Hirata, who turned himself in to police after nearly 17 years on the run, with riot police on standby along the streets and traffic lights changed to green to ensure a smooth procession during the convoy's nearly hour-long journey from the Tokyo Detention House. Nakagawa attended the trial of Hirata, charged with involvement in the abduction and confinement of a Tokyo notary public, as a witness.

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AUM trial

TOKYO, Japan - Two buses, each believed to be carrying a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, enter the Tokyo District Court on Jan. 21, 2014. Heavy security was provided to transport Tomomasa Nakagawa, a death-row inmate, and Makoto Hirata, who turned himself in to police after nearly 17 years on the run, with riot police on standby along the streets and traffic lights changed to green to ensure a smooth procession during the convoy's nearly hour-long journey from the Tokyo Detention House. Nakagawa attended the trial of Hirata, charged with involvement in the abduction and confinement of a Tokyo notary public, as a witness.

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AUM trial

TOKYO, Japan - A police vehicle leads two buses, each believed to be carrying a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, as the convoy heads for the Tokyo District Court on Jan. 21, 2014. Heavy security was provided to transport Tomomasa Nakagawa, a death-row inmate, and Makoto Hirata, who turned himself in to police after nearly 17 years on the run, with riot police on standby along the streets and traffic lights changed to green to ensure a smooth procession during the convoy's nearly hour-long journey from the Tokyo Detention House. Nakagawa attended the trial of Hirata, charged with involvement in the abduction and confinement of a Tokyo notary public, as a witness.

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Lawyers for death row inmate

NAGOYA, Japan - The defense team for Masaru Okunishi, an 87-year-old death row inmate, arrives at the Nagoya High Court in Nagoya on Nov. 5, 2013, to file their eighth appeal for retrial. Okunishi was convicted of killing five women with poisoned wine in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, in 1961.

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Retrial for 1961 murder case rejected

TOKYO, Japan - File photo taken in June 1961 shows Masaru Okunishi (C), accused of poisoning 17 people, resulting in the deaths of five women, on March 28, 1961, at a local community meeting in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, during the first hearing on the case at the Tsu District Court in the prefecture. The Supreme Court said Oct. 17, 2013, it has turned down a petition by Okunishi, now an 87-year-old death-row inmate, for a retrial over the case.

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Guide dog raised by inmate

TOKYO, Japan - Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki (far L) meets a guide dog and its partner, a 48-year-old blind man, at the ministry in Tokyo on June 20, 2013. The Labrador retriever, aged 2 years and 5 months, was raised by a prison inmate and has been recognized as a guide dog by the Japan Guide Dog Association in the first such instance.

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Fukuoka Detention House

FUKUOKA, Japan - Photo taken Nov. 27, 2012 shows the Fukuoka Detention House in Sawara Ward in Fukuoka City, where death row inmate Yukinori Matsuda was executed by hanging on Sept. 27, 2012.

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Ex-death row inmate

NEW YORK, United States - Kirk Bloodsworth (C), an American who spent nearly nine years in prison and two years on death row for a crime he did not commit, speaks at the United Nations headquarters in New York on July 3, 2012.

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Inmate's kin

NARITA, Japan - (from L) Radha, wife of murder case inmate Govinda Prasad Mainali, and her daughters Mithila and Alisha arrive at Narita airport near Tokyo on June 6, 2012. They visited Japan as the Tokyo High Court plans to issue a decision on June 7 on whether to open a retrial for the Nepalese man serving a life sentence for killing a Japanese woman in Tokyo in 1997. The man denies the killing in a high-profile case in which the victim was working as a prostitute as well as at the then blue-chip Tokyo Electric Power Co.

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High court rejects appeal over 1961 murders

NAGOYA, Japan - Supporters of Masaru Okunishi, an 86-year-old death-row inmate convicted of poisoning five women by pesticide-laced wine and injuring 12 others in 1961 in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, hold up messages protesting a decision by the Nagoya High Court to reject an appeal for a retrial filed by Okunishi, in front of the court in Nagoya on May 25, 2012.

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High court rejects appeal over 1961 murders

NAGOYA, Japan - Supporters of Masaru Okunishi, an 86-year-old death-row inmate convicted of poisoning five women by pesticide-laced wine and injuring 12 others in 1961 in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, are left in shock in front of the Nagoya High Court on May 25, 2012, after the court decided to reject an appeal for a retrial filed by Okunishi.

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High court rejects appeal over 1961 murders

NAGOYA, Japan - Lawyer Izumi Suzuki, who heads the defense counsel for Masaru Okunishi, an 86-year-old death-row inmate convicted of poisoning five women by pesticide-laced wine and injuring 12 others in 1961 in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, answers reporters' questions in front of the Nagoya High Court in Nagoya on May 25, 2012, after the court decided to reject an appeal for a retrial filed by Okunishi.

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High court rejects appeal over 1961 murders

NAGOYA, Japan - Supporters of Masaru Okunishi, an 86-year-old death-row inmate convicted of poisoning five women by pesticide-laced wine and injuring 12 others in 1961 in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, raise their fists in front of the Nagoya High Court on May 25, 2012, after the court decided to reject an appeal for a retrial filed by Okunishi.

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High court rejects appeal over 1961 murders

NAGOYA, Japan - A lawyer for Masaru Okunishi, an 86-year-old death-row inmate convicted of poisoning five women by pesticide-laced wine and injuring 12 others in 1961 in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, shows a banner bearing the message ''unjust decision'' to Okunishi's supporters. Standing in front of the Nagoya High Court, he was informing them of the court's decision on May 25, 2012, to reject an appeal for a retrial filed by Okunishi.

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Escaped inmate likely sneaked into house

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Investigators from the Hiroshima prefectural police gather in a residential area in the city of Hiroshima's Nishi Ward on Jan. 13, 2012. Li Guolin, a 40-year-old Chinese man who remains at large after escaping from Hiroshima Prison on Jan. 11, is believed to have sneaked into a private home in the area and consumed food and stolen clothing and other items on Jan. 12.

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Inmate escapes from Hiroshima Prison

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Mothers walk their children to elementary school in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima on the morning of Jan. 12, 2012, after an inmate escaped from Hiroshima Prison the previous day. Li Guolin, a 40-year-old Chinese man, remains at large.

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Inmate escapes from Hiroshima Prison

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Hideyuki Yamasaki (C), head of the general affairs division at Hiroshima Prison, and other prison officials bow in a gesture of apology at a press conference in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima on Jan. 11, 2012, after Li Guolin, a 40-year-old Chinese man, escaped from the prison earlier that day.

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Inmate escapes from Hiroshima Prison

HIROSHIMA, Japan - Aerial photo taken Jan. 11, 2012, shows Hiroshima Prison in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima. Li Guolin, a 40-year-old Chinese man, escaped from the prison that day.

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Retrial possibility revived for man on death row for murders

TOKYO, Japan - This file photo taken in March 1961 shows relatives at the scene of a wine poisoning case in Mie Prefecture. The Supreme Court has revived the possibility of a retrial for an 84-year-old death row inmate convicted of killing five women and injuring 12 others, court officials said April 6, 2010.

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Death row inmate writing cards stressing innocence

NAGOYA, Japan - Death row inmate Masaru Okunishi sent this New Year's greeting card to Shozo Ino, a supporter who is allowed to meet with him in prison.

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Ex-death row inmate campaigns against death penalty

TOKYO, Japan - Sakae Menda, 82, Japan's first death row inmate to be found innocent in a retrial, campaigns against the death penalty at a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 17. The United Nations General Assembly is expected to adopt a resolution on Dec. 18 calling for a global moratorium on capital punishment.

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Quake shelter inmate follows LDP election defeat in newspaper

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan - An elderly woman at an earthquake shelter in Kashiwazaki, Niigata reads a newspaper on July 30 with blaring headlines of the Liberal Democratic Party's crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election. A magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck coastal Niigata on July 16. Some residents still live at earthquake shelters after losing their homes to the earthquake.

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Ex-judge not allowed to see death row inmate

TOKYO, Japan - Norimichi Kumamoto, a former judge at the Shizuoka District Court, looks dejected outside the Tokyo Detention House on July 2 after he was denied permission to visit a man he had sentenced to death for the 1966 murder of a family of four even though he believes the man was innocent. Kumamoto, 69, who presided over the trial of Iwao Hakamada, 71, went public in March and said he convicted the man as he was unable to persuade the two other judges in the trial of the defendant's innocence.

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Paintings on show to mark 20th anniv. of Teigin inmate's death

TOKYO, Japan - A painting by Sadamichi Hirasawa, who was sentenced to death over a 1948 mass-poisoning case known as the ''Teigin Incident,'' on display at a Tokyo art gallery on May 16 to mark the 20th anniversary of his death in prison. The exhibition shows about 50 works by the award-winning painter, who died in May 1987 at age 95 after he was first sentenced to death in 1950.

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Japanese life-term inmate in Philippines marries in prison

MANILA, Philippines - Marissa, 25, a Filipino woman who married Hideshi Suzuki, a 49-year-old Japanese man serving a life sentence in the Philippines for drug trafficking, speaks how she got to know Suzuki in an interview with Kyodo News on April 26 outside a prison in Muntinlupa near Manila.