2008/26th May
NAGASAKI
A 60-year-old gangster was sentenced to death Monday for fatally shooting Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito during his election campaign in April last year. Tetsuya Shiroo shot Ito, 61, twice with a pistol on the evening of April 17 near the mayor’s election campaign office in front of JR Nagasaki station, according to prosecutors’ closing argument at the Nagasaki District Court. Ito died six and a half hours later in hospital.
The crime ‘‘was extremely outrageous and heinous,’’ Presiding Judge Yoshimichi Matsuo said. ‘‘It infringed people’s right to vote and destabilized democracy from its roots.’’ Shiroo blamed financial troubles he had on the city’s refusal to extend loans to a construction firm he was associated with, and his grievance became focused on the mayor, according to the prosecutors. Shiroo decided in February 2007, when Ito declared his candidacy for the election, to kill him in order to prevent his reelection, they said.
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Gallows sought for yakuza assassin of Nagasaki mayor
NAGASAKI -- The one-time yakuza who assassinated Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito should be made to pay the ultimate penalty for "shaking the core of freedom and democracy," prosecutors told the Nagasaki District Court on Wednesday.
Prosecutors demanded 60-year-old ex-yakuza Tetsuya Shiroo be found guilty and sentenced to death for gunning down the 61-year-old Ito as he campaigned for re-election on the streets of Nagasaki in February last year.
"It was an act that stifled debate, shook the core of freedom and democracy and was clearly electoral terrorism," a prosecution lawyer told the court.
Shiroo, who has entered a guilty plea but denied any premeditation in Ito's death, was due to have lawyers present his closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon before the hearing in his murder trial adjourned prior to sentencing.
"I only thought of killing him for the first time when our eyes met (immediately before the shooting)," Shiroo told the court.
Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito lies on the ground outside JR Nagasaki Station after being shot on April 17, 2007. This photo by Mainichi photographer Shuchiro Nagasawa won last year's Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association Prize, the nation's top journalism award. (Mainichi file)
Shiroo has apologized to the slain mayor's family, but the former member of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza gang told his trial he doesn't know what motivated him to shoot dead the politician.
Prosecutors, however, said that Shiroo decided to kill Ito in late February last year due to his poor financial state after the mayor announced he would run for a fourth term.
Shiroo is accused of shooting Ito on the night of April 17 last year near the mayor's campaign office in front of JR Nagasaki Station. Ito died 6 1/2 hours later in a hospital.