There has been outrage among 2ch netizens after a man handed a 12 year sentence for two counts of rape and one of sexual assault on a 14 year old girl might have been wrongly imprisoned.
The man, who maintained his innocence throughout and attempted several appeals, was already 6 years into his sentence when the girl finally came forward and admitted that she and her witness had lied about the rapes.
Now, the Osaka District Prosecutor has called for a retrial in which the man is expected to be found innocent…
From Yomiuri Shimbun:
Retrial In Rape Case To Begin, Man Will Enter Innocent Plea…Osaka District Court
On February 27, the Osaka District Court opted to begin a retrial after a request from a man who was released from prison by the district prosecutor because he is most likely innocent of a rape for which he had been serving 12 years in prison.
Apart from the woman and her witness going back on evidence they gave that the woman had been the victim, the existence of a medical record stating that there were no traces of sexual violence on the woman’s body was also revealed. District Judge Toishi Ikuro noted that “There is new evidence to suggest that there should be an innocent verdict”. It is expected that the man will be found innocent at the retrial.
According to the original judgement, the man was indicted for the crimes of rape and indecent assault for having raped the same woman twice in November 2004 and April 2008, in Osaka City, and also for groping her breasts in July 2008. The woman complained about these incidents to Osaka Prefectural Police twice in August and September.
The man claimed from the investigation stage that he was innocent; however, in 2009 the Osaka district court judgement stated that “it is difficult to think that a 14 year old girl could have fabricated an assault that never took place” and sentenced the man to 12 years in prison. In 2010 the Osaka High Court threw out an appeal, and in 2011 the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal, and confirmed the original verdict.
In September 2014, while the man was serving his prison sentence, he applied to the district court for a retrial. During a hearing to request a retrial at the district court, the girl and the witness admitted that their testimony at the first trial, upon which the man’s guilt had been based, was false, and explained that “During the investigation and the trial, I wasn’t able to get it off my chest that I’d told a lie”.
During the prosecutor’s investigation, a medical record was discovered from August 2008 when the woman was seen at a clinic that noted the doctor’s opinion that “there are no traces to indicate that the woman was assaulted”.
The district prosecutor submitted for a retrial hearing after there was no evidence to support the testimony of the women who denied the assault. In November last year, prosecutors also produced a document saying that “there was the possibility of innocence”, and the man was released from prison and his sentence was suspended. In total the man had served around 6 years of his sentence including the time he was detained following his initial arrest and the time he had served in prison.
In his decision, Judge Toishi indicated that the women’s new testimony completely negated the testimony upon which the man’s guilt had been based in the final judgement made by the courts. He stated that “the medical records strongly corroborate the reliability of the new testimony”.
Comments from 2ch.net:
ビッグブーツ(茨城県)＠＼(^o^)／:
So that was all a lie, huh?
エメラルドフロウジョン(新疆ウイグル自治区)＠＼(^o^)／:
Woah.
シャイニングウィザード(新疆ウイグル自治区)＠＼(^o^)／:
Ah, Japanese law, in which suspicion *is* grounds for punishment.
TEKKAMAKI(西日本)＠＼(^o^)／:
And so, this guy had his life destroyed, but who’s gonna compensate him for that?
シューティングスタープレス(SB-iPhone)＠＼(^o^)／:
Don’t compensate him with our tax money! Squeeze it out of that woman, good and proper.
ナガタロックII(宮崎県)＠＼(^o^)／:
They need to stop finding people guilty based on these vague confessions and testimonies.
I won’t even get started on the comfort women.
デンジャラスバックドロップ(徳島県)＠＼(^o^)／:
This is just too tragic.
No matter what they do, they can’t give back to him what they took away.
ハーフネルソンスープレックス(神奈川県)＠＼(^o^)／:
The woman is innocent, of course.
Where the hell is the gender equality in this?
This is the evidence that the court carries out sexual discrimination.
16文キック(チベット自治区)＠＼(^o^)／:
Well she was 14, so the lie will end with a lie.
ときめきメモリアル(神奈川県)＠＼(^o^)／:
Oh so glad there wasn’t a rape at all…
ニールキック(静岡県)＠＼(^o^)／:
Idiot girls like this are the ones who should be having their names revealed online.
急所攻撃(大阪府)＠＼(^o^)／:
But why did she lie? What for??
アキレス腱固め(和歌山県)＠＼(^o^)／:
This is exactly the thing that we need strict punishments for.
アイアンクロー(新疆ウイグル自治区)＠＼(^o^)／:
This shit girl is made of shit, but those around her are also pretty awful. They found that man guilty just based on her testimony when there was no other proof. We’re never going to be able to get rid of all these shit bitches who make crazy accusations, but we should be able to get rid of insane trials where people are found guilty just based on someone’s testimony.
リバースパワースラム(チベット自治区)＠＼(^o^)／:
The money that will be paid to this wrongly accused man, that’ll be our tax money. So basically we are the ones saying, we’re so deeply sorry, please take this money and forgive us.
Why the hell do errors made by public servants have to be corrected with the people’s money?
I wish that public servants would pay it out of their own pockets!
フルネルソンスープレックス(SB-iPhone)＠＼(^o^)／:
Make the girl’s parents pay out like 100 million yen.
ジャンピングカラテキック(やわらか銀行)＠＼(^o^)／:
But in the end why did she tell that lie?
She must have hated that guy so much that she wanted to ruin him through a rape crime.
