Acquitted Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate Seeks $1.3 Million From Japan

The world's longest-serving death row inmate is demanding the Japanese government pay him more than $1.3 million in compensation after his conviction was quashed, his lawyer said Thursday.

Iwao Hakamada, 88, was declared innocent last year of a 1966 quadruple murder for which he spent over four decades in confinement, mostly on death row.

A regional court ruled in a September retrial that police had tampered with evidence, and the ex-boxer had suffered "inhumane interrogations meant to force a statement" that he later withdrew.

Prosecutors later said they would not appeal the acquittal, putting an end to one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Japan's history.

Hakamada, now a free man, and his defence team filed a claim with the Shizuoka District Court on Wednesday seeking more than 200 million yen ($1.3 million) in compensation from the government.

That is the maximum possible amount under Japan's criminal compensation law, which stipulates the payment of up to 12,500 yen ($81) for each day spent in detention once an acquittal is finalised.

"The amount is far from sufficient given he suffered the worst possible form of physical confinement for so long, as a death row inmate", his lawyer, Hideyo Ogawa, told AFP.

Decades of detention -- with the threat of execution constantly looming over him -- have taken a toll on Hakamada's mental health, his lawyer had previously said, describing him as "living in a world of fantasy".

"We hope the financial compensation will help give him and (his sister) Hideko the peace that they deserve, for the time they have left in their lives," Ogawa said.

Japan and the United States are the only major industrialised democracies to retain capital punishment, which has broad support from the Japanese public.

Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate granted a retrial in Japan's post-war history. All four previous cases also resulted in exonerations.

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