The Kobe District Court on Wednesday dismissed a case against a former senior police officer over a 2001 fatal mass crush after a fireworks display in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, on the grounds that the statute of limitations has expired.
Presiding Judge Tetsuya Okuda closed the case against Kazuaki Sakaki, 66, without a decision on his innocence or guilt on charges of professional negligence.
Sakaki was deputy head of the Akashi Police Station at the time of the incident, in which a huge crowd overpacked a pedestrian bridge after the fireworks event, resulting in 11 people being crushed to death and 247 being injured on July 21, 2001. Inadequate crowd control was blamed for the tragedy.