Murder defendant wins libel suit against writer
A journalist was ordered Monday to pay a murder defendant $6,500 for an article that concluded the man arranged his wife’s slaying in Los Angeles.
The order came despite the fact that the libel case victor is currently on trial for allegedly trying to arrange the murder, and is serving a prison term for plotting an earlier unsuccessful attempt to kill his wife.
Kazuyoshi Miura, the plaintiff in the libel suit, is on trial along with a friend in connection with the shooting death of his wife in Los Angeles in November, 1981.
Miura, 42, filed suit against magazine writer Joji Abe in October, one year after the article appeared in the Weekly Asahi. A Tokyo court found that Abe’s conclusion that Miura ordered his wife, Kazumi, slain was not based on sufficient evidence.
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