A Japanese man who reportedly spent the world's longest time on death row before his exoneration in 2024 has been awarded $1.4 million in compensation.
Iwao Hakamada, 89, spent 46 years in detention, most of it on death row, for the murders of four people in the central Japanese region in 1966.
In 2014, a court ordered his release and a retrial amid doubts about the evidence supporting his conviction.
In September 2024, the Shizuoka district court ruled in favour of Hakamada and said that the police had tampered with evidence.
The former boxer, who has lived with his sister since his release, had been accused of stabbing to death his former boss and family before burning down their home.
Though he briefly admitted to the killings, he retracted the confession and pleaded innocent during his trial but was nevertheless sentenced to death in 1968, a penalty upheld by Japan's Supreme Court in 1980.
Rights group Amnesty International hailed the exoneration as a "pivotal moment for justice" and urged Japan to scrap the death penalty.
"After enduring almost half a century of wrongful imprisonment and a further 10 years waiting for his retrial, this verdict is an important recognition of the profound injustice he endured for most of his life," Amnesty said.
"It ends an inspiring fight to clear his name," it added in a statement.
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