![]() ![]() Hakamada was a live-in employee at a miso manufacturer when he was arrested in 1966 for robbing and murdering the firm’s managing director, his wife and their two teenage children. “Now that the Tokyo high court has acknowledged Hakamada’s right to the fair trial he was denied more than 50 years ago, it is imperative that prosecutors allow this to happen.” Yet at the age of 87, he has still not been given the opportunity to challenge the verdict that has kept him under the constant threat of the gallows for most of his life. “Hakamada’s conviction was based on a forced ‘confession’ and there are serious doubts about the other evidence used against him. “This ruling presents a long overdue chance to deliver some justice to Iwao Hakamada, who has spent more than half a century under sentence of death despite the blatant unfairness of the trial that saw him convicted,” Hideaki Nakagawa, the director of Amnesty International Japan, said. Groups opposed to the death penalty welcomed the high court’s decision and said the retrial should take place while Hakamada, now in poor health, was still able to take part in hearings. Hakamada reportedly spent much of his time on death row in solitary confinement. Campaigners have used Hakamada’s case to accuse Japanese authorities of driving prisoners insane and subjecting them to “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment.ĭeath row inmates are notified only on the morning of their execution, and their families are typically informed after the execution has taken place. Japan, the only G7 country along with the US to retain capital punishment, has drawn international criticism of its “ secret” executions. Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images Hideko Hakamada (centre) with Hideyo Ogawa, a lawyer for Iwao Hakamada, after the retrial was ordered. ![]()
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