Kyoto Prefectural Police turned over to prosecutors Friday their case against nine Kujo Police Station officers who allegedly covered up facts relating to the death of a drunken man in their custody in 1997.
The nine, including Masayoshi Takasaki, 59, then chief of the police station, are suspected of falsifying official documents to cover up the fact that the man froze to death after he was left to sleep uncovered on the floor of an unheated police garage.
The National Public Safety Commission and the prefectural police also punished the nine officers Friday.
Takasaki and four others were suspended from duty for up to four months. Three had their salaries reduced and the remaining one was reprimanded, police said.