The Kumamoto District Court made the judgment in handing down a ruling on a damages suit filed by former patients related to the execution of another patient with Hansen’s disease in the 1960s.

"The trial at the special court violated the personal rights (of the executed patient), was unreasonable discrimination based on the fact that he suffered from leprosy and violated Articles 13 and 14 of the Constitution," the court said in its ruling.

But the court rejected a demand for damages.

The suit filed by six former patients centered on the 1952 murder of a village official in Kumamoto Prefecture, which was tried at a sanatorium in the prefecture as well as a neighboring prison for the disabled.

In the case, a leprosy patient was sentenced to death in a trial held at a special court for killing the official and was executed in 1962 after having sought a retrial three times.

The plaintiffs, who are not family members of the executed man, had sought ¥100,000 ($905) each in damages from the state, saying they became mentally distressed after prosecutors opposed a request for a retrial.

Article 13 of the supreme law stipulates that all people shall be respected as individuals and Article 14 says all people are equal under the law.

Presiding Judge Yuko Onodera also ruled the practice of special courts may have violated the open court principle stated in Articles 37 and 82 of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court in April 2016 apologized to former leprosy patients, saying it was against the law to have tried the patients outside standard courtrooms without properly examining the need to do so, but it fell short of admitting the practice’s unconstitutionality.

The 1952 murder was said to have been motivated by revenge against the official who reported the man to a prefectural government as a leprosy patient. The man had entered a not guilty plea, but his death sentence was finalized in 1957.

While Japan’s Court Law states that trials should be held at courts or their branches, it also allows them to be held outside of court buildings if the top court finds it necessary.

Special courts for leprosy patients were convened in 95 cases between 1948 and 1972 at sanatoriums and other facilities for the patients.

In Japan, leprosy patients were discriminated against and confined to sanatoriums under a law that was in place between 1907 and 1996. The disease is now curable.

The government formally apologized in 2001 over its segregation policy on leprosy patients and has set up a compensation system for them.

Last year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologized to family members of former leprosy patients who suffered under the segregation policy and enacted a law to enable compensation payments to be made to them as well.

(Published by The Japan Times, February 26, 2020)
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