The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that a 55-year-old suspect was shot dead by a policeman during an interrogation in 1997 and instead decided the victim committed suicide, rejecting a redress demand by the man's daughter.
The high court supported the Kanagawa Prefectural Police claim that Yoshio Yanagi committed suicide during an interrogation at the Tobe Police Station in Yokohama's Nishi Ward.
In its 2002 ruling on the daughter's damages suit, the Yokohama District Court said it was unlikely that Yanagi, head of a Yokohama financial firm who also had underworld ties, could commit suicide in the interrogation room and ruled that he had in fact been "accidentally" shot to death by a sergeant who was grilling him.