For the first time since 2019, the death penalty has been imposed on prisoners in Japan

The death sentence was carried out in Japan on Tuesday (December 21), the first time in two years that three people have been sentenced to death, an official from the Ministry of Justice told Agencies France-Presse (AFP). He was 65 for the crime of killing seven family members and a neighbor with a hammer and knife in 2004, and two men, aged 54 and 44, for the double murder in 2003.

He was sentenced to death in December 2019 in Japan for the crime of killing four members of the same family in the southwestern part of the country in 2003. Japan executed three convicts in 2019 and fifteen convicts in 2018, including thirteen members. A member of the Om faction who was involved in the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo Metro in 1995.

One hundred criminals are waiting for a possible execution

Despite criticism from abroad, especially from human rights organizations, the Japanese public support for the death penalty remains strong.

“Whether or not the death penalty should be upheld is an important question in the foundations of the Japanese criminal justice system.”, Deputy Secretary General of the Government Seiji Kihara, commented at a press conference on Tuesday. “As the heinous crimes continue, the death penalty must be imposed on those who inevitably commit atrocities and atrocities.”, He added.

The execution took place on Tuesday, a few days later A fire at a psychiatric hospital in Osaka has killed at least 25 people (West), where the criminal investigation has not yet been officially opened, the police announced the name of the suspect.

There are currently more than 100 death row inmates in Japan, and there are usually long years between sentencing and execution, but prisoners are notified a few hours before the execution.

Case

In early November, two death row inmates began legal action against the Japanese government, denouncing the practice as illegal, citing psychological problems. “It violates human dignity”Their lawyer told the AFP that the death penalty was usually announced to offenders one to two hours in advance, preventing them from seeing their lawyer or appealing.

Separately, in December 2020, the Japanese Supreme Court overturned a decision barring a request to reconsider the trial of 85-year-old Ivao Hakamada, who is considered the oldest person to be sentenced to death in the world. Mr. Hakamada spent more than four decades on death row in 1968 after being executed for killing his employer and three members of his family. This Japanese man was detained for several weeks before being withdrawn and pleaded guilty after trial. He has since been acquitted, but his sentence was upheld in 1980.

When sentenced to death in Japan, handcuffed and blindfolded offenders are carried above a trap door that opens under their feet by a mechanism triggered by one of three buttons attached to the side wall. The room, pressed simultaneously by three guards, ignores the active one.