Yukikatsu Hosoya, 48, was expected to be released almost immediately because he had spent more than a year in police custody awaiting trial and was likely to be granted parole.

Hosoya admitted helping his wife, Chiyoko, 55, commit suicide. He had faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison for that crime.

Prosecutors were forced to abandon charges of murder, manslaughter and being party to a suicide after new forensic evidence showed they could not rule out Hosoya's claim that his wife had killed herself in a botched suicide pact between the couple on Aug. 12 last year.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 28, 2004
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