Teruhiko Matsue KYODO PHOTO

The victims, including one that the defendant, Teruhiko Matsue, had been dating, were found near each other in a mountainous part of the town of Kitagata in January 1989.

"There were no errors or misidentification of facts in the trial of first instance, where his confession was not adopted as evidence because it was illegally obtained," presiding Judge Katsuhiko Masaki said in upholding the acquittal of Matsue, who wasn't arrested for the slayings until 2002 because Saga police, after he retracted his 1989 confession, decided they couldn't make a case.

Matsue is said to have been subject to illegally long hours of police interrogation.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 24, 2007
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