The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former police inspector Friday to 10 months in prison for leaking investigative information in a 2009 fatal malpractice case.

Yoichi Shirotori, 58, was convicted of breaking confidentiality as a civil servant. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of one year behind bars. Shirotori denied the allegations.

The court ruled that testimony by a 54-year-old former colleague that he had received investigative information from Shirotori was rational and credible. After leaving the Tokyo police force, the colleague had landed a job at the Shinagawa Cosmetic Surgery clinic with help from Shirotori.

The court said Shirotori investigated the case in which a 70-year-old woman died after undergoing an operation at the clinic. He handed copies of investigative documents to the former colleague, who was then working as an adviser at the clinic, in November 2010.