OSAKA -- The Osaka High Court on Wednesday reduced the sentences of two former presidents of the defunct Green Cross Corp., which sold HIV-tainted blood products in the 1980s, but rejected their appeal for suspended sentences.
The high court sentenced Renzo Matsushita, 81, president of the company at the time of the debacle, to 18 months in prison and Tadakazu Suyama, 74, then vice president and later president, to 14 months for professional negligence resulting in death.
In February 2000, the Osaka District Court sentenced Matsushita, a former official of the then Health and Welfare Ministry, to two years in prison, and Suyama, a former doctor, to 18 months.