KOBE - Lawyers for a Nigerian man seeking a retrial over a 2001 post office robbery in western Japan said Thursday prosecutors have disclosed what they described as "new evidence" -- a photograph that the defense argues undermines a key piece of evidence supporting his conviction.
The photograph shows a storehouse where stolen cash was found after the 2001 robbery in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. According to the defense, the photograph, disclosed by prosecutors in February, shows no padlock or other external lock.
The defense said testimony that the storehouse was locked from the outside had been cited as one reason for the man's conviction, as he managed the building.
"With the photo, we think the assumption of the prosecutors no longer holds," the team said.
The Nigerian man made his first retrial request in 2012, which was dismissed. He filed a second request in 2025.
