Russian Man to Be Acquitted of Possessing Gun in Retrial in Japan

Sapporo, Feb. 23 (Jiji Press)--A Russian man who was convicted of possessing a gun and bullets in the northernmost Japan prefecture Hokkaido in 1997 and served two years in prison is set to be acquitted, it was learned Thursday. At the first and last hearing in a retrial of the 47-year-old former seaman held at Sapporo District Court the same day, his defense team said the man was encouraged by a collaborator with local police to commit the crime and claimed that it was an illegal undercover sting operation. Prosecutors said "a not-guilty verdict should be given" to the defendant, instead of calling for a guilty ruling. The Russian man said that after being arrested he told interrogators that he was asked by a Pakistani who was collaborating with the police to supply a gun and ammunition, but that the Hokkaido police denied the existence of such a person. The police deceived him systematically, he noted. His defense team said an investigation needs to be conducted to determine how he was mistakenly found guilty previously. Now that the retrial is over, the court is expected to hand down an acquittal verdict on March 7. The Russian national was indicted on a charge of possessing a gun and bullets at a port in Otaru in November 1997. He pleaded not guilty in his initial trial at the same district court, saying that the collaborator with the police proposed a gun trade deal in an illegal sting operation. But the court sentenced him to two years in prison in 1998. The ruling was finalized later. In 2002, a former local police inspector who was arrested over a crime related to stimulants, backed the Russian man's claim. In March 2016, the court granted the retrial for the Russian man, who lodged an appeal in 2013. In October the same year, Sapporo High Court agreed to review the case mainly because the former police inspector and others had created false documents to hide their undercover operation, making prosecutors give up filing a special appeal to the Supreme Court. END