Japanese Boxer On Death Row Keeps Up The Good Fight

Shuffling down the street sporting shorts, jacket and straw hat, 82-year-old Iwao Hakamada could be mistaken for any Japanese octogenarian going about his daily chores.

Hamamatsu, Japan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Sep, 2018 ) :Shuffling down the street sporting shorts, jacket and straw hat, 82-year-old Iwao Hakamada could be mistaken for any Japanese octogenarian going about his daily chores.

But the former boxer has had anything but an ordinary life: he has been living under a death sentence for half a century, thought to be the longest-serving condemned man.

The accused murderer finds himself in the extraordinary position of being sentenced to death but free awaiting a possible retrial.

Supporters say nearly 50 years of detention, mostly in solitary confinement with the ever present threat of execution looming over him, have taken a heavy toll on Hakamada's mental health.

He now walks the streets of Hamamatsu, southwest of Tokyo, for hours at a time, lost in his own world.

When AFP joined him on a sweltering summer day, the former boxer said he was "fighting a bout every day".

"Once you think you can't win, there is no path to victory," he said.

Though he was talking about boxing, there is a nod to his long battle for justice on death row.