Japanese woman, 30, accused of killing husband, 77, 3 months after marriage found not guilty

A 30-year-old Japanese woman accused of killing her husband was recently found not guilty for the second time after a high court in Japan upheld the ruling previously handed to her by a district court.

The Osaka High Court handed Sudo Saki the ruling on Mar. 23, 2026, NHK World Japan reported, adding that her acquittal comes after the presiding judge dismissed the appeal filed by prosecutors.

Accused

According to The Japan Times, the district court had previously ruled in December 2024 that Saki was found not guilty of killing her husband, Nozaki Kosuke, 77, in May 2018.

She was accused of doing so just three months after marriage by allegedly getting him to ingest stimulants at his home, after which he died of acute poisoning.

She had then admitted to marrying Kosuke for money, but denied killing him.

At that time, Kosuke had about 1.3 billion yen (over S$10 million) in assets.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that when Saki was first acquitted, the ruling was said to have acknowledged that she had reportedly bought a substance suspected to be methamphetamine from a dealer and searched online for phrases like "methamphetamine, overdose" and "elderly man, perfect crime".

However, the court concluded it could not rule out the possibility that Kosuke had ingested the drug himself by mistake.

Appeal

Prosecutors, who sought a life sentence for Saki, then appealed to the high court after she was found not guilty.

Her lawyers, however, argued that Saki was innocent and maintained that the district court had handed down a fair judgment.

Top photo via JBPress