A Japanese man who spent nearly half a century on death row was exonerated in 2024 and is now being paid $1.4 million (over 3.93 billion Pakistani rupees) in compensation for his long imprisonment. It should be noted that 89-year-old Iwao Hakamada was sentenced to death in 1968 for the murder of his boss, his wife, and two children.
Iwao Hakamada spent 46 years in prison after the 1968 court verdict and was exonerated in 2024. Now the new court verdict says that he should be paid 12,500 yen for each day spent during the 46 years.
According to a court spokesman, they will be awarded a total of 217,362,500,000 yen. The same court had ruled in September 2024 that Iwao Hakamada was not guilty during a retrial. He is believed to be the longest-serving death row inmate in any prison in the world.
In 2014, new evidence emerged in his trial, after which he was released on bail after 46 years in prison and remained free for 10 years until the retrial was decided. Iwao Hakamada has always maintained his innocence, saying that investigators coerced him into confessing, while his lawyers accused the police of tampering with evidence.
In September 2024, the Shizuoka District Court acquitted him of the crimes. Shizuoka District Court Judge Koshi Kunii acknowledged in the ruling that evidence in the case had been tampered with, such as Iwao Hakamada’s confession and his clothing being changed.
Iwao Hakamada’s 92-year-old sister, Hideko Hakamada, has been campaigning for her brother’s release for years.”We have been fighting a long battle that seemed to never end, but now we are confident that everything has turned out well,” she told the media after the verdict last year.
Now, regarding the compensation decision, Iwao Hakamada’s lawyers said the amount was small compared to the suffering he faced behind bars for decades.
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