Judge acknowledges Iwao Hakamada was wrongfully convicted for murders at miso factory in 1966.
A court in Japan has ruled that an 88-year-old former boxer sentenced to death in 1968 on a wrongful murder conviction is innocent.
The Shizuoka District Court said on Thursday that Iwao Hakamada was not guilty in a retrial for the quadruple murder of a company manager and three of his family members in 1966.
Presiding judge Koshi Kunii said the court acknowledged multiple fabrications of evidence and that Hakamada was not the culprit, according to a report by Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Freed in 2014 pending retrial, Hakamada had languished on death row for 46 years after what turned out to be a forced confession for the murders at the miso (soy paste) factory where he had been hired in 1965.
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