A woman who served more than 20 years of a life term declared Monday during her retrial that she is innocent of killing her 11-year-old daughter in a 1995 house fire.

"I did not do it," Keiko Aoki, 52, said at the Osaka District Court. "Neither did I conspire (in the girl's death). I am innocent."

Aoki is set to be acquitted on Aug. 10 along with her de facto husband Tatsuhiro Boku, 50, as prosecutors have decided not to pursue fresh guilty verdicts for the pair.