A high court on Monday denied a retrial for a 95-year-old woman who served 10 years in prison for the murder of her brother-in-law in 1979 in Kagoshima Prefecture.

The Fukuoka High Court's Miyazaki branch rejected a call by Ayako Haraguchi to reopen the case, saying there was "no error in judgment" in the previous decision in June 2022 by the Kagoshima District Court that had deemed new evidence presented by the defense to be insufficient.

"It cannot be said that (the new evidence) is highly credible," said presiding Judge Masao Yasu.