NARA (Kyodo) The Nara District Court found a psychiatrist guilty Wednesday of leaking investigative records from a deadly arson in Nara Prefecture to a freelance journalist in what is believed to be the first ruling on unlawful disclosure of confidential information.
Morimitsu Sakihama, 51, was handed a suspended four-month prison term for leaking the records to journalist Atsuko Kusanagi, 44, in October 2006. The records concerned a teenager who torched his home that June, killing his stepmother and two siblings.
Prosecutors were demanding a six-month prison term in the case, which stirred national debate over free speech.