Update 01/10/2024: the Shizuoka District Court acquitted Hakamada Iwao on 26 September 2024, recognising that key pieces of evidence were fabricated by investigative authorities to gain a conviction. The prosecution has until 10 October to file an appeal against the decision to acquit Hakamada Iwao. Help us ask them not to pursue this path and to instead accept the acquittal decision. 

Hakamada was arrested 58 years ago for the robbery and murder of his employer and his employer’s family in 1966, based on a “confession” extracted through torture or other ill-treatment, as well as evidence that is likely to have been fabricated and planted. He has maintained his innocence of the crime and, alongside his sister Hideko, he has fought to clear his name since his arrest.

On 13 March 2023 that the Tokyo High Court ruled in favour of the beginning of his retrial, pointing out that “there is a possibility that a third party hid the five items of clothing” that were the main basis for the conviction and that the evidence could have been fabricated by a third party, going as far as stating that “the third party is most likely an investigative agency.”

Hakamada Iwao spent more than 45 years under sentence of death, predominantly in solitary confinement. He is believed to be the person who has spent the longest time on death row in the world. He is now 88 years old, his physical health is frail and he has a severe mental disability, which he developed while held on death row.

Add your name to the petition calling for the authorities not to appeal against the decision to acquit Hakamada Iwao of murder and give finality to the recent decision clearing his name.