150,000 sign petition seeking death for 3 killers acquainted via Internet
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 06:50 EDTNAGOYA — The mother of a woman killed in August submitted to the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office on Tuesday the signatures of about 150,000 people calling for the death penalty for three men charged with murder and robbery in the case. The three have been indicted on charges of killing Rie Isogai, 31, after they allegedly became acquainted through a mobile phone Internet site seeking "crime mates" in order to commit a crime to get money.

Fumiko Isogai, 56, told prosecutors, "Those men who did these horrible things to my daughter are not human beings. I hope the judges will understand my feeling," as she brought in the signatures in four cardboard boxes to the prosecutors office building. The defendants — Tsukasa Kanda, Yoshitomo Hori and Kenji Kawagishi — allegedly kidnapped Isogai, an officer worker, at random by car on a street in Nagoya on Aug 24, robbed her of about 60,000 yen and killed her. (Kyodo News)