JAPANESE MAN ACQUITTED OF 1966 MURDERS AWARDED US$1.44 MILLION

SHIZUOKA (Japan), March 25 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- Iwao Hakamata, 89, acquitted in a retrial over a 1966 family murder in Japan, has been awarded record criminal compensation after spending over 47 years in prison, Kyodo News Agency reported on Tuesday.

His legal team said the order to pay around ¥217 million (US$1.44 million) was issued by the Shizuoka District Court on Monday, stating that the compensation was granted for his more than four decades of physical detention, from his arrest until his release.

In January, the team submitted a compensation claim to the district court on behalf of Hakamata, who still suffers from the effects of his confinement.

Hakamata's acquittal was finalised last October, marking the end of his family's decades-long fight to free him from death row. Investigative authorities fabricated evidence in the case, which took place in Shizuoka Prefecture, according to the court.

The fabrication served as the "basis for determining the amount of compensation," the court said, with the presiding judge noting Hakamata spent about 33 years of his detention under a death sentence, causing him to endure "extremely severe" mental and physical pain.

Hakamata's legal team has said it plans to file a lawsuit against Shizuoka Prefecture and the national government by this summer to hold them accountable for the wrongful conviction.

At a press conference in the prefecture, one of Hakamata's lawyers said, "It is only natural for the highest amount of criminal compensation to be awarded in a death penalty case where fabrication has been acknowledged."

Referring to the lingering effects of Hakamata's confinement, the lawyer criticised the central government, saying it had committed a "wrongdoing that 200 million yen cannot possibly atone for."

-- BERNAMA-KYODO