The government indicated Monday that it will fight a lawsuit claiming that rulings by 37 judges to deny bail for a former adviser to machinery-maker Ohkawara Kakohki, who died of cancer while facing wrongful charges, were illegal.

The state called for the suit filed by three family members of Shizuo Aishima, who died in 2021 at age 72, to be dismissed, in the first oral arguments of the case at the Tokyo District Court. The plaintiffs, including his 77-year-old widow, demanded about ¥168 million in damages.

It is unusual for a lawsuit to hold judges accountable for what has been described as “hostage justice,” or the practice of holding suspects who deny accusations in custody for a prolonged period, according to the plaintiff side. Lawyers for the plaintiffs told a news conference after the hearing that they will seek to examine the judges as witnesses.

The wife told the court that Aishima cried and was devastated that his bail request was denied while he was hospitalized, saying he found it inhumane. She said she wants to hear from the judges why the bail requests were repeatedly rejected.

In March 2020, Aishima and others from the company were arrested for allegedly violating the foreign exchange law and were later indicted. Aishima was found to have stomach cancer in October and his detention was briefly suspended, but judges denied a total of eight bail requests. He died in February 2021 with the charges still pending.

The plaintiffs argued that it was unconstitutional to detain Aishima for a long period despite him being unlikely to flee or destroy evidence and needing medical treatment. “It was clear that the requirements (for continuing to hold him in custody) were not met based on a reasonable assessment of the evidence,” they claimed.

In a ruling finalized in June last year, Tokyo High Court found that an investigation into the alleged foreign exchange law violation by Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department and the subsequent indictment by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office were illegal, and ordered the national government and Tokyo Metropolitan Government to pay ¥166 million in compensation.

The MPD and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office apologized to Aishima’s bereaved family.