PRESS CONFERENCE
Prosecutors Force Retrial on Iwao Hakamada, Who Spent Decades On Death Row
Hideko Hakamada, Sister of Iwao Hakamada
Hideyo Ogawa, Attorney at law
July 25, Thesday, 11:00-12:00 (Press Conference)
The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation.
Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada, 87, has spent half his life on death row, his health suffering over the prolonged solitary confinement. Yet hopes among his supporters of an acquittal, after the Tokyo High Court ordered a retrial in March, were dashed on July 10 when prosecutors said they will not drop the case.
They accuse Hakamada of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children in 1966, when he was working at a miso or soybean processing factory in Shizuoka. The High Court, in rejecting the prosecution's case, had impugned the credibility of key evidence as likely to have been fabricated and planted.
The case has captured international intrigue, no least given Hakamada's certification by Guinness as the world's longest-serving death row inmate. But it also cast a spotlight on the alleged shady practices by Japan's prosecutors that supposedly run the gamut from beatings, forced confessions and cooked evidence, to protect their conviction record of 99.9 per cent.
Hakamada's 90-year-old sister Hideko and lawyer Hideyo Ogawa will address the FCCJ on the latest developments in the case.
How to attend:
Please register at front@fccj.or.jp with your name, the name of your media outlet, and FCCJ membership number. Due to space restrictions attendance will be limited. Doors open 15 minutes before the event. Please sign in, giving your name and contact details at the reception, and have your temperature taken before proceeding.
How to watch online: https://www.youtube.com/c/FCCJchannel/live
Livestreaming of the press events will be available and video of this event will be uploaded to our FCCJ YouTube channel.
How to ask questions: https://forms.gle/QNgy9va8tcasjuuR9
Members watching the event online can submit questions for the speakers in advance using this submission form.
TV crew: Please make a reservation at front@fccj.or.jp. Doors open for TV crews only at 30 minutes before the event.
Professional Activities Committee