Japan Hangs Hiroshi Maeue, Who Killed Three People He Met Through an Internet Suicide Site
Maeue was one of three men executed that day. He and a second Osaka inmate had withdrawn their appeals, Amnesty International said.
Published
Hiroshi Maeue met his three victims through an internet site for people thinking about suicide, proposing that they die together. On July 28, 2009, Japan hanged him in Osaka.
"Executions were carried out today on three inmates who had been sentenced to death," Japan's justice ministry said in a statement reported by AFP. It named Maeue, 40, and Yukio Yamaji, 25, both executed in Osaka, and Chinese national Chen Detong, 41, executed in Tokyo. Maeue killed the three people in 2005. He was arrested that August over the death of the first of them, Michiko Nagamoto, 25, of Osaka, and in March 2007 the Osaka District Court sentenced him to death. According to Amnesty International, Maeue and Yamaji had both withdrawn their appeals at the High Court, and the executions brought Japan's total for the year to seven.
Japan hangs inmates without advance notice to them or their families, a practice that has drawn criticism from the European Union and campaigners. Makoto Teranaka of Amnesty International's Japanese chapter called the executions "a grave act that cannot be permitted amid international calls to suspend capital punishment." Japan had hanged 15 death-row inmates the previous year, the most since 1975.
Amnesty International noted that it had earlier rendered Maeue's name as "Maegami Hiroshi," while AFP, citing the justice ministry, identified him as Hiroshi Maeue.
Sources
- Japan executes three inmates: govt, The Sydney Morning Herald (AFP)
- Japan executes three inmates, The Himalayan Times (AFP)
- Urgent Action UA 54/09: Japan executions, Amnesty International
- 3 die in fake net suicide pacts, The Sydney Morning Herald (AFP)
- Osaka District Court judgment, March 28, 2007, Courts in Japan
Related News
- August 5, 2005: Osaka Police Arrest Hiroshi Maeue, Who Lured Victims Through Suicide Websites With Fake Death Pacts
- March 28, 2007: Osaka Court Sentences Hiroshi Maeue to Death for Killing Three People He Met on Suicide Websites
- July 28, 2009: Japan Hangs Yukio Yamaji, 25, Who Killed Two Sisters in Osaka Five Years After Killing His Mother