The Yokohama District Court on Monday sentenced Motoo Watanabe, the former police chief of Kanagawa Prefecture, to a suspended 18-month prison term for leading the organized coverup of drug use by one of his inspectors in 1996.
The court also handed down suspended one-year terms to Yoshimasa Hara, 48, a former head of the administrative division; Masateru Tsunoda, 59, a former chief of the inspection division; Yosuke Nagayama, 58, a former inspection officer; and Yoshitaka Miyata, 60, a former chief of the public life security section.
All the terms are suspended for three years. Prosecutors had demanded an 18-month prison sentence for Watanabe, 56, and one-year terms for the four others.
Judge Masaoki Iwatare said: "The defendants forgot the spirit of their official responsibilities and betrayed the trust the public had in the police. Their offense is grave and they deserve to die 10,000 times." The court described the circumstances and motives surrounding the crime as "malicious."