The Nagoya High Court has decided to analyze the adhesive on the paper used to seal a wine bottle in the so-called Nabari poisoned wine case, the defense team said. The ruling concerns a request for a retrial — a rehearing of a case already decided — in a poisoning that took place in Nabari, Mie Prefecture, 65 years ago.
The defense team disclosed the court's decision. NHK did not report when the analysis would take place or what the defense expects it to show.
A retrial request asks a court to reopen a conviction that has already become final, and in Japan such requests are handled by the court that issued the original ruling. The Nabari case is among the country's longest-running post-war appeals, and the question of what the seal on the bottle can still reveal is now before the high court six and a half decades after the poisoning.