Two men were convicted Friday for intimidating lay judges involved in the trial of a senior member of a crime syndicate based in southwestern Japan but were allowed to walk free because their sentences were suspended.

In the first such ruling since the nation's lay judge system was introduced in 2009, the Fukuoka District Court sentenced Toshimi Kusumoto, a former member of the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, to nine months in prison and Kimikazu Nakamura, a company employee and former classmate of the senior yakuza, to a year in prison.

But both sentences were suspended for three years.