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The World Boxing Council Sunday awarded an honorary championship belt to a former Japanese boxer who was freed from death row last month after 48 years in prison following a murder conviction.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman handed the belt to an elder sister of Iwao Hakamada, 78, who has been receiving hospital treatment since his release from a Tokyo prison on March 27.
A portrait of Hakamada was sewn into the green belt.
Hakamada was at one time ranked sixth in the national featherweight division.
But while preparing to return to professional boxing in 1966, he was accused of robbing and stabbing to death his boss and the man's wife and their two children.
Hakamada initially admitted the crime but said later he had been forced to confess because of a brutal police interrogation.
He was given a death sentence in 1968, which was upheld by a high court in 1976 and by the Supreme Court in 1980.
But a district court ordered a retrial, saying investigators could have planted evidence to convict Hakamada as they sought to solve a crime which had shocked the country.
The WBC has supported Hakamada in helping him win a retrial.
"We have fought for 48 years to be finally granted a retrial. We owe it to your support," Hakamada's sister Hideko, 81, said after receiving the belt from Sulaiman in a ceremony in the ring at the Ota gymnasium.
The presentation was held before WBC flyweight and light flyweight title bouts.
"I want to show the belt to him (Hakamada) as soon as possible. I want to come and watch boxing matches with him after his condition improves," Hideko said.
© (c) 2014 AFP
22 Comments
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Magnet
What happened to the investigators who got him convicted? They should take his place in jail. 48 years falsely accused is almost as bad as actually ending a man's life.
CrazyJoe
The Hakamada case is a serious indictment of the Japanese capital punishment system.
nath
Pfft.
nedinjapan
@Magnet
Vernie Jefferies
He is truly a Grand Champion to survive this ordeal.
Frungy
Actually I'd say it is worse than ending a man's life. They sentenced him to 48 years of torture. Waking up every day wondering if today was going to be the day the guards would tell you you're going to die, knowing you're innocent, wondering how your family is... pure torture. There's simply no comparing 48 years of that to murder, it is a thousand times worse.
SenseNotSoCommon
Well done, WBC. Shame on the judicial system.
rickyvee
no, it's a serious indictment on japan's judicial and legal system. both failed him in this case.
Lowly
So So Sad. A real fighter giving in to lies due to interrogation, proves the weight of isolation and interrogation.
The J peeps are too accepting of authority and "the way things are". Most reasonable ppl understand the cops force confessions, and think what happened to this guy, and the Nepali guy etc etc, is awful, but at the same time they have an instinctive "it's been decided, so therefore I must go along with the decision" switch in them that keeps things like accountability for cops/ judicial system, and thinking of the whole thing as "our" laws "for us" as really alien concepts.
Time for penalties for cops, judicial system advocates who create this kind of MIS judgement too often. THEY should be going to jail. (At least lose their jobs!) Stand up, Wake up, j peeps, for what is right. As Bob Marley would've said.
gogogo
They need to track down the people that convicted him and find out what happened.
Schopenhauer
I think this guy committed the murder. In Japan, the suspect if he or she contitues to deny the crime, he or she will become free like this guy. It is difficult to investigate the cases again after so many years.
oldman_13
Thank goodness.
Death penalty is a mockery of a humane society.
isoducky
Really sorry to hear what the guy had to go through. It was a failure of the judicial system in Japan.
That said, for all the anti death penalty advocates I have a question; Is life in prison that much better? While in prison general health standards must be maintained at the cost of tax payers. Those with diseases and cancers are provided care while those who have followed the rules must pay for their costs even if they couldn't afford the same care. Keeping some alive just to continue to punish them out of some self righteous "We're better because we don't kill" is just as cruel and petty.
Michael Grant
The dude "fought" for 48 years, thrown in prison for something he didn't do. Yeah, his courage and perseverance need to be recognized! Having said that, I think his sister also deserves an award!! Were it not for her visits and undying support, he never would have made it out alive!
WA4TKG
No doubt they STRIPPED him of any titles just for being SUSPECTED of this, now, they hand it back and all is FORGOTTEN.
boweevil
@isoducky
What advocates for the death penalty fail to realize is that is actually costs the taxpayers more money generally to put people to death than it does to keep them alive. And this will continue to be a knee-jerk mainstay of their argument because it makes an appeal on behalf of 'the taxpayer'. The Legal fees, appeals, processing fees etc. incurred, are generally much higher in capital cases than the cost of keeping someone in prison for the rest of their lives.
smithinjapan
Well, geez, that makes up for EVERYTHING!
And, of course, this will, in society's eye, rid the Japanese system of any wrong doing to this man. They can now wipe their hands and hope it all goes away so nothing more need be done. Given that on death row in Japan you are not told of your execution until the day of, this man lived more than 840,000 days not knowing if his ticket would be up that day or not. Now, add to that torture the very likely physical torture he suffered at the hands of guards, the fact that nearly 50 years of his life was taken away, and all of it because he was wrongfully imprisoned, and this belt is simply the gesture of spitting on the man's face if nothing in the system changes. Sickening!
Upgrayedd
No one is even trying to make a claim that this makes up for everything.
No one in Japan believes this rids the Japanese system of any wrong. This is a simple humble gesture from the WBC, not the Japanese government.
He was on death row for 2,301 years?
Vincehwr
Maybe I don't know the government should build a monument for Mr. Hakamada to set an example of harmful misconduct in the judicial system. There is really NOTHING to provide him for the condolence of solitary confinement for 40 years and brutal treatment he received.
afanofjapan
Amazingly, a newspaper in Australia reported that the prosecutors are STILL trying to stop this case going to trial, and are campaigning for him to get put back in jail. They are completely against the retrial, despite mountains of glaring evidence of foulplay on the behalf of the police.
This is not about them wanting to ensure justice is served (in which case they would welcome the retrial) they are now just blatantly trying to avoid the trial which will show the fallacies of the system. I really wonder what goes through their minds, how they sleep at night knowing what they are doing.
NathalieB
I just wish this was all over the international news. This is the perfect opportunity to show Japans "justice" system up for what it really is, and shame them into some real change. It is shocking that a so-called developed country can be allowed to carry on like this with impunity and in those 48 years nothing has changed - interrogations are still not recorded, lawyers are still not present, and often paid off even if they are, and the 99% conviction rate still stands today. So how many more miscarriages of justice are taking place right under our noses while no one does a damned thing about it?