Death penalty sought again for 88-year-old in Japan murder saga

AFP | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Japanese prosecutors again sought the death penalty in the retrial yesterday of an ex-boxer who was the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner until his release in 2014.

Iwao Hakamada, now 88, spent 46 years on death row -- a stretch recognised by the Guinness World Records -- after being convicted in 1968 of murdering a family.

He was freed in 2014 and a retrial was ordered after a court said investigators could have planted evidence, sparking relief among his supporters who included other boxers and the rights group Amnesty International.

However, prosecutors argued at the retrial in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, that Hakamada’s guilt could be proven “beyond reasonable doubt”, the Asahi Shimbun daily said.