DNA prompts Japan murder retrial
Published:Wednesday | October 21, 2009 | 5:57 PM
A Japanese man who spent 17 years in jail for the murder of a four-year-old girl has now pleaded not guilty in a retrial of his case.
Sixty-three year-old Toshikazu Sugaya, was released earlier this year after fresh tests showed that evidence found at the murder scene did not match his DNA.
He was sentenced to life in jail after confessing during a police interrogation that he had committed the crime.
He later retracted the statement, saying it was made under duress.
Human rights groups have criticized Japan\'s system of police interrogations, where suspects can be detained and questioned for up to 23 days without the presence of a lawyer.
The conviction rate in Japan is more than 99 per cent and a recent report by Amnesty International claimed that some of these convictions were based on confessions extracted from suspects against their will.