21-12-21, 22:10
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Japan HANGS 3 Men -First Time Since 2019
Japan HANGS Three Men on Death Row For First Time Since 2019
Japan has executed three prisoners on death row for the first time in two years.
BBC News 21 Dec 2021
The government said it was necessary to maintain capital punishment in the face of continued "atrocious crimes" - the inmates are usually hanged long after sentencing.
More than 100 people are currently on death row in the country, most of them being cases of mass murder.
One of the men who was executed was 65-year-old Yasutaka Fujishiro, who used a hammer and knife to kill his 80-year-old aunt, two cousins and four others in 2004, a justice ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
The three men who were hanged Tuesday were Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who was convicted for murdering seven people in 2004, and Tomoaki Takanezawa, 54, and Mitsunori Onogawa, 44, who were convicted for killing two employees in a game parlor in 2003, reported CNN, citing the Japanese Justice Ministry.
"These are extremely brutal cases, taking precious lives for selfish reasons. I think these are terrible incidents not only for victims who lost their lives but also for bereaved families," Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa stated at a news conference, according to CNN.
"As justice minister, I authorized their executions after giving extremely careful considerations again and again," Furukawa added.
The prisoners were executed by hanging, which is how all executions are carried out in Japan.
Prisoners on death row in Japan are notified only hours before they are to be executed in a long criticised practice by rights groups - which say it affects the mental health of prisoners.
Last month, two death row inmates in Japan took legal action against same-day executions.
"Death row prisoners live in fear every morning that that day will be their last," said the lawyer for the two death row inmates Yutaka Ueda, according to a Reuters report.
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