“Three fabricated proofs”
Thursday at the conclusion of this review trial, the judge seriously called into question the investigation. “The court determined that three pieces of evidence were fabricated to suggest that the defendant was the perpetrator of the crime. By excluding these elements, the other elements against him are not sufficient to establish” his guilt, the judge said.
He also described the interrogations “inhuman” aimed at inflicting “physical and mental pain” and to “make declarations under constraint”a thesis that his lawyers have always supported.
Hakamada initially admitted the facts before retracting, citing the interrogation methods.
His death sentence was, however, upheld in 1980. In 2014, a court admitted doubts about his guilt after tests showed that DNA found on bloody clothes did not match his.
“The investigators altered the clothes by putting blood on them”the judge confirmed Thursday.
After this episode, Mr. Hakamada was released. But on appeal from the prosecution, the Tokyo High Court in 2018 questioned the reliability of the tests and annulled the 2014 decision, without sending Mr. Hakamada back to prison.
In 2020, a new twist: the Supreme Court overturned the decision which prevented Mr. Hakamada from being retried. And it is therefore the verdict of this review trial that Hakamada, his relatives, whose leader is his sister Hideko, 91 years old, and his supporters were waiting for.
Fear of a call
“When the court declared that the accused was not guilty, it seemed divine to me. I was so moved and happy to hear it that I couldn’t stop crying. But they were tears of joy.”declared Hideko Hakamada during a press conference at the end of the day with his lawyers.
This very rare verdict of innocence also delighted his supporters, who gathered in front of the Court from the start of the day with T-shirts and banners of support.
“The judgment was what we expected. Our next action is to demand that prosecutors not appeal.”declared Akiko Abe, a 64-year-old Japanese woman, fearing the use of this right by the prosecution, which has until October 10 to react.
At the end of the hearing, the judge asked Ms. Hakamada to come closer.
“The door to his freedom has been opened, but it could close if prosecutors appeal”he whispered to her.
According to his sister, Mr. Hakamada lives “now in an imaginary world and his words have no meaning” after spending nearly five decades on death row, often in solitary confinement, and where every day could be his last.
In Japan, those sentenced to death are often warned at the very last moment of their execution by hanging, the only method accepted in the archipelago, which has a little more than 100 condemned to death in its prisons.
“Hakamada has not been treated with dignity for half a century. With this verdict, I hope he will spend the rest of his life with dignity.”declared Fumio Ogura, a 74-year-old Japanese man, present before the Tribunal.
