92 million yen for wrongly jailed man

A Japanese court on Thursday awarded $1.1 million (S$1.4 million), the maximum possible compensation, to a 64-year-old man who spent 17 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of a child's murder.

The district court in Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo, awarded 92 million yen (S$1.4 million) to Sugaya Toshikazu for his suffering and to cover his legal costs in the case, a court official said.

Sugaya, who was sentenced to a life term in 1993, was cleared of his conviction after a genetic test re-ordered in 2008 found the DNA evidence against him to be flawed.

The compensation of 12,500 yen per day in jail is the highest amount allowed under Japanese law in such a case, the official said. (The Straits Times)