Killers
of accomplices sentenced
The
Japan Times: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
CHIBA
(Kyodo) The Chiba District Court on Monday sentenced a man
to death and two others to life imprisonment over the
deaths of four people in 2004 following a split in a
billing fraud ring to which the defendants and their
victims belonged.
Presiding Judge Takanori Hikosaka gave the death sentence
to Reo Ito, 32, and sentenced Shinya Ata, 29, and Teruyuki
Sagiya, 27, to life imprisonment. They are among 18 people
indicted over the incident.
Prosecutors indicted the three on charges of conspiring
with group leader Taishi Shimizu, 27, who is also on trial,
and others to confine four members of the ring in a
building in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, and murder three of them
by beating them with baseball bats and pouring hot water on
them in October 2004.
The prosecutors also indicted the three for causing the
death of the fourth victim as a result of the assault,
although they did not bring a murder charge in his case.
The defendants buried the bodies in a vacant lot in Ibaraki
Prefecture, the prosecutors said.
They demanded capital punishment for Ito and Ata and life
imprisonment for Sagiya.
They have also demanded the death sentence for Shimizu and
another man, who are to be ruled on later.
The
Japan Times: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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