The Toyama District Court on Thursday sentenced a former chief of the Toyama Prefectural Police to a one-year prison term, suspended for four years, for covering up illegal drug use by an informant in 1995.
Masafumi Ueda, 54, received a suspended prison term for releasing Shinichi Tsuchida on May 18, 1995, the day after he was arrested on suspicion of using stimulant drugs.
Tsuchida, 40, served as an informant for the police in a separate amphetamine racketeering case.
"The accused took advantage of his position as the top official of the police and committed the serious crime involving his subordinates," said the presiding judge, Masakatsu Kamisawa. "His criminal responsibility is grave as the case caused the loss of confidence in the police."