World's longest-serving death row inmate gets record payout

A Japanese man who spent nearly 50 years on death row before he was acquitted of murder will be compensated 217 million yen ($1.45m or Sh187,630,000), in what his lawyers say is the country's largest-ever payout in a criminal case.

Iwao Hakamata, 89, was found guilty in 1968 of killing his boss, his boss's wife, and their two children, but was acquitted last year after a retrial.

The BBC reports that Hakamata's lawyers had sought the highest compensation possible, arguing that the 47 years in detention, which made him the world's longest-serving death row inmate, took a toll on his mental health.

Judge Kunii Koshi, who granted the request on Monday, agreed that he had suffered "extremely severe" mental and physical pain.

The Japanese government will pay Hakamata's financial compensation, in what local media is widely reporting as the biggest payout for a criminal case in the country's history.

Hakamata's case is one of Japan's longest and most famous legal sagas.

He was granted a rare retrial and released from prison in 2014, amid suspicions that investigators may have planted evidence that led to his conviction.

Last September, hundreds of people gathered at a court in Shizuoka, a city on Japan's south coast, where a judge handed down the acquittal, to loud cheers of "banzai", or "hurray" in Japanese.

Hakamata, however, was unfit to attend the hearing. He was exempted from all prior hearings because of his deteriorated mental state.

He had lived under the care of his 91-year-old sister Hideko since being granted a retrial and released from prison in 2014.

Hideko had fought for decades to clear her brother's name.