The International Commission against the Death Penalty (ICDP or the Commission) acknowledges the decision of the Shizuoka District Court to award 217 million yen (approximately 1.34 million euros) in compensation to Iwao Hakamada, who spent over 45 years under sentence of death. He was acquitted on 25 September 2024 after being initially acquitted by the same court on 27 March 2014, the ruling of which was appealed against by prosecutors on 31 March 2014. In 2011, Mr Hakamada became the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner. The Commission recalls that Mr. Hakamada’s case is the fifth in postwar Japan where a death row inmate has been acquitted following a retrial.
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