OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court has ordered Shinchosha Co. and its president to pay 6.6 million yen in compensation to Masumi Hayashi, who is on trial for mass murder in a 1998 curry poisoning incident, for running a photo and drawing of her without permission.
Handing down a ruling Tuesday, presiding Judge Takeshi Okahara said, "The photo was taken without the permission of the court, and publishing it in the magazine violated her portrait rights."
Shinchosha, based in Tokyo, published a photo of Hayashi in court with a rope tied around her waist in Focus, a weekly magazine that has since suspended publication, on May 26, 1999, leading Hayashi to file a lawsuit demanding 22 million yen in compensation and a published apology. The photo was taken in November 1998, when the Wakayama District Court summoned her to explain why she would not be released.