The Shizuoka District Court has awarded Iwao Hakamata, who was acquitted of a 1966 murder case in a retrial last year, some ¥217 million ($1.44 million) in compensation for being unjustly detained for over 47 years, his lawyers said Tuesday.
The sum marks the biggest amount of such compensation granted in the country, the lawyers said.
The 89-year-old former professional boxer was acquitted in September last year over the murder of four people in Shizuoka Prefecture, a decision that became final the following month after prosecutors did not appeal it.
Hakamata was arrested in August 1966, and his death sentence was finalized in 1980. He had been detained for about 47 years and seven months by the time the Shizuoka District Court granted him a retrial and ordered his release in March 2014.
In his decision on the compensation on Monday, presiding Judge Koshi Kunii said that Hakamata "suffered extreme mental and physical anguish as he was in custody for about 33 years only awaiting execution."
The judge concluded that it would be appropriate to grant the maximum possible amount of compensation, given a series of decisions that found Hakamata guilty was based on evidence fabricated by investigators.
Under the criminal compensation law, those who are found not guilty in a retrial can claim up to ¥12,500 in compensation for each day they were in custody. In January this year, Hakamata's defense team applied for the maximum amount of compensation possible.
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