An 88-year-old man, the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, has been acquitted by a Japanese court.
Iwao Hakamada spent more than half a century on death row after being convicted in 1968 of killing his boss, his wife and two teenage children.
He was recently granted a retrial amid suspicions investigators may have planted evidence that led him to commit four murders.
The verdict ends one of Japan’s longest and most famous legal saga.
The case has attracted widespread public attention, with about 500 people queuing to be seated at the Shizuoka courthouse on Thursday.
After the verdict was announced, Hakamada’s supporters cheered “Banzai” – a Japanese exclamation meaning “long live” – outside the court.
In 2014, Hakamada was released from prison and was retried by a Japanese court after defense lawyers showed that the bloodstained DNA on the clothes worn by the murderer did not match Hakamada’s DNA.
Since then, he has been living under the care of his sister due to his deteriorating mental state.
The lengthy legal process meant a retrial did not begin until last year, and it was not until Thursday morning that the court announced whether Hakamada would be cleared of the charges or hanged.
Hakamada is the fifth death row inmate in the country’s postwar history to be retried.
