La justicia absuelve a Iwao Hakamada tras 45 años condenado a pena de muerte

2024-09-26 10:15:14

Ante la acquittal of the Japanese Iwao Hakamadawho spent almost five decades waiting for execution, Boram Jang, researcher of Amnesty International for East Asia, expressed:

“Nos alegra enormente la decisión del tribunal de Exonerate Iwao Hakamada. After enduring almost half a century of incarceration and spending another 10 years waiting for a new trial, this decision is an important recognition of the deep injustice that Hakamada has suffered during the greater part of his life. In addition, he gave a copy of the fight to clean up his name that he released his sister Hideko and all the people who supported her.

Este día que hoy celebramos y que tanto se ha hecho esperar, en que se hace justicia con Hakamada, nos recuerda también el damage irreversible que causa la pena de muerte. We firmly urge Japan to abolish the penalty of death to prevent this from happening again.

Las authorities japonesas deben revisar también todas las condenades a muerte ya puestas, en especial cuando preocupa que la persona condenada tenga alguna mental o intelectual disability. Only the total abolition of capital punishment will guarantee that no one repeats errors of this caliber and that no one is deprived of life in an irreversible and arbitrary manner. Amnesty International will continue to fight for the abolition of the penalty of death and reforms that guarantee equity and justice for all people.

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El 26 de septiembre de 2024, el District Court of Shizuokaen un fallo expected desde hacía mucho tiempo, acquitted Hakamada Iwaoa quien se considera la persona que más tiempo ha pasado presa en espera de execution en el mundo.

In his first trial, Hakamada was declared guilty of murder by his employer and his family. The sentence was largely based on a forced “confession” after 20 days of police interrogation, from which Hakamada retracted during the trial, claiming that the police had threatened and beaten him. Hakamada was sentenced to death by the Shizuoka District Court in 1968 and spent more than 45 years awaiting execution.

In March 2014, the District Court of Shizuoka granted a new trial to Hakamadaque salió de prison después de que aparecieran pruebas de ADN que ponía en duda la reliability de su sentencia condenatoria.

The decision to celebrate a new trial was also based on more than 600 evidence that the prosecutor revealed, and that distorted the validity of previous evidence.

In June 2018, the Superior Tribunal of Tokyo Anuló la decision de la instancia inferior y denegó a Hakamada un nuevo juicio, tras una apelación de la fiscalía. Los abogados de Hakamada appealed this decision, which led to the fact that the Supreme Court of Japan revoked the decision of the Superior Court in December 2020, asking it to review the appeal again. Finally, in March 2023, the Tokyo Superior Court also ruled in favor of the Supreme Court’s decision to retry Hakamada.

The new trial of Hakamada officially began in October 2023. The forced “confession” was excluded from the tests. From then on, the prosecutors continued to express their support to confirm the sentence and condemn the death of Hakamada.

Japan has continued to carry out executions, including people with pending appeals, which violate international safeguards to guarantee the protection of the rights of people condemned to death. The last execution in Japan took place on July 26, 2022. On December 31, 2023, 107 of the 115 existing death sentences had been confirmed, meaning that the affected persons were at risk of execution. Las personas condenadas a muerte seguían siendo recluidas en régimen de isolation y, en ausencia de salvaguardias efectivas o periodice psiquiátricas, continuaba imponiendos la pena capital a personas con discapacidad mental (psychosocial) e intelectual, en violation del derecho y las internacionales norms.

Amnesty International has condemned the death penalty in all cases without exceptioncon independencia del character o las circunstancias del delito, de las characteristics y la culpabilidad o inocencia de la persona accusada o del método de execución utilizado por el Estado.