Japanese Advisory Panel to Review Retrial System

Tokyo, March 14 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese advisory panel will start discussions later this month to review the country's retrial system for criminal cases, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Friday.

Suzuki told a press conference that he will ask the Legislative Council, which advises the minister, to review the system on March 28.

Critics say that the retrial system needs to be changed because it prolongs trials as many rules are not clearly stated in the law. Related provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure have never been revised since it was established in 1948.

In a retrial over a 1966 murder case in Shizuoka Prefecture, Iwao Hakamata took 44 years to be acquitted in October last year after his death sentence was once finalized.

The council is expected to discuss standards for disclosing evidence by investigation authorities, restrictions on the prosecution's appeal against a decision to start a retrial and whether to exclude judges involved in the final trial from a retrial.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]