OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court has ordered Shinchosha Co. and its president to pay 6.6 million yen in compensation to Masumi Hayashi, who is on trial for mass murder in a 1998 curry poisoning incident, for running a photo and drawing of her without permission.

Handing down a ruling Tuesday, presiding Judge Takeshi Okahara said, "The photo was taken without the permission of the court, and publishing it in the magazine violated her portrait rights."

Shinchosha, based in Tokyo, published a photo of Hayashi in court with a rope tied around her waist in Focus, a weekly magazine that has since suspended publication, on May 26, 1999, leading Hayashi to file a lawsuit demanding 22 million yen in compensation and a published apology. The photo was taken in November 1998, when the Wakayama District Court summoned her to explain why she would not be released.

After the suit was filed, Focus ran a drawing of her in the court on Aug. 25 the same year, saying in the headline, "What about an illustration?"

Okahara ruled the drawing also violated portrait rights as it clearly identifies her and ordered redress be paid, adding it was obvious the illustration was published only to make fun of her and did not serve the public interest.

A lawyer for Hayashi said, "I believe it is the first court decision to say an illustration violates portrait rights."

Okahara held Shinchosha President Takanobu Sato liable as he failed to prevent Focus from conducting the illegal coverage despite its record of breaking laws.

The judge meanwhile rejected Hayashi's demand that the publisher run an apology.

Igo Yamamoto, former chief editor of Focus, said he cannot accept the ruling and that the publisher will appeal.

Hayashi, 40, allegedly perpetrated the fatal poisoning of four people and the sickening of others at a community festival in Wakayama in July 1998. She is also on trial for arsenic poisoning attempts on others, including her husband, Kenji, as well as for insurance fraud.

In October 2000, Kenji, who was tried separately from his wife, was sentenced to six years in prison for swindling three insurance companies out of 160 million yen by fraudulently claiming insurance payments for accidents that he and his wife allegedly suffered. During his trial, the former pest exterminator owned up to the charges but denied playing a leading role in the scheme.