Tokyo High Court upholds man's acquittal over death of parents in 2011
Hatori Koichi
June 7, 2016 (Mainichi Japan)
The Tokyo High Court on June 7 upheld a lower court ruling that found a 44-year-old man not guilty of killing his parents and setting fire to his home in the Saitama Prefecture city of Kumagaya in 2011.
- •
Handing down the ruling on June 7, presiding judge Yoshifumi Asayama rejected the Saitama District Court's suggestion that it could not completely rule out the possibility of a double suicide in which Hatori's father, worried about his illness, committed suicide after killing his wife. While recognizing that Hatori's parents had been killed by someone, presiding judge Asayama said, "We cannot completely say that the accused is the culprit."
Based on Hatori's mobile phone logs and other factors as evidence, prosecutors argued that the accused, who was near his home before and after the fire, was involved in the incident. But the Saitama District Court said in 2015 that it could not completely rule out the possibility that Hatori's father killed his wife before killing himself.
As the body of Hatori's father did not show any signs of the man hanging himself, among other factors, the Tokyo High Court overturned the district court's double-suicide argument, saying, "We cannot accept the lower court judgement." At the same time, the high court said, "We can recognize that his parents were killed by someone."
The Tokyo High Court concluded that Hatori was not guilty, stating, "The accused was not necessarily inside his home and there remain questions if we are to determine that the accused is the culprit."
Hatori had been indicted on charges of killing his parents by applying compression to their necks and other means around March 10, 2011 and spreading heating oil before setting fire to his home the following day. But he had denied the charges since his arrest.