Police chief apologises to man cleared after more than 50 years on death row

Police apologised in person to former Japanese death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada (Kyodo News via AP)

A Japanese police chief has apologised in person to 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada after he was kept on death row for more than 50 years until last month, when he was acquitted in a retrial.

Mr Hakamada, a former boxer, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court, which said police and prosecutors had collaborated to fabricate and plant evidence against him, and forced him to confess after violent interrogations.