Swimmer Naoya Tomita, who was summarily indicted last September for allegedly stealing a camera at the Incheon Asian Games before later claiming his innocence, strongly denied the crime as the trial opened in court in the South Korean port city on Monday.
"There is no truth that I stole a camera," read Tomita, 25, in a statement to the court after arriving accompanied by his lawyer, Bujiro Kunita, at Incheon International Airport the same day.
In making his appeal to the Incheon District Court, Tomita argued that he has no interest or knowledge of cameras in the first place, adding that it would be impossible for him to even know how to remove the professional telescopic lens before stealing the camera as claimed by the prosecution.