JAPAN: DEATH ROW INMATE, LAWYERS SEEK STATE COMPENSATION

a death row inmate and his two lawyers filed a damages suit against the Japanese state, arguing it is illegal that the Hiroshima Detention House did not allow him to meet the lawyers privately. While the lawyers visited Shozo Nishiyama, 55, three times at the detention house earlier this year to prepare for his retrial, the detention house rejected their request each time to meet their client without supervision, according to the complaint filed with the Hiroshima District Court. Claiming they should be guaranteed meetings without supervision, the plaintiffs are demanding that the state pay them 3.3 million yen in compensation. The death penalty against Nishiyama over a murder-robbery case was finalised at the Supreme Court in 2007, though he was once sentenced to life in prison by a lower court.