A ruling by the Fukuoka High Court acquitting a man of the rape of a teenage girl in 2012 was finalized Wednesday after prosecutors did not appeal it.

The court lambasted a DNA laboratory involved in the case, saying it was possible that it succumbed to police pressure in reporting a false match.

Kengo Iwamoto, 23, from the city of Kagoshima, was sentenced to four years in jail by the Kagoshima District Court in 2014, but the Fukuoka High Court's Miyazaki branch overturned that ruling this month, citing a fresh examination of DNA.