An appeal by public prosecutors against a not-guilty verdict handed down on a woman accused of providing a false alibi for her son in an indecent assault case was rejected in the Tokyo High Court on Wednesday.

Standing trial on suspicion of perjury was Michiko Ito, 50. In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Ritsuro Uemura said it could not be accepted that the woman had lied in contradiction to her memory.

Prosecutors had argued that perjury needed to be handled strictly ahead of the introduction of the citizen-judge system, and demanded that Ito be jailed for 18 months.

The ruling, however, criticized the investigation, saying the impression that prosecutors had simply sought a confession couldn't be denied.

"Further efforts to conduct proper investigations in perjury cases are desired," the court said.

Ito was accused of providing false testimony when she appeared as a witness in the trial of her 25-year-old son, who stood accused of indecent assault, saying that at about the same time the assault allegedly occurred, she happened to meet her son and picked him up in her car to go shopping with him. Her son was convicted and handed a prison sentence.

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