Japan Hangs Yukio Yamaji, 25, Who Killed Two Sisters in Osaka Five Years After Killing His Mother
Yamaji had withdrawn his appeal against the death sentence, Amnesty International said. He was one of three men executed in Japan that day.
Published
Yukio Yamaji killed his mother at 16 and, five years later, two sisters in an Osaka apartment. 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 Yamaji, 25, and Hiroshi Maeue, 40, both executed in Osaka, and Chinese national Chen Detong, 41, executed in Tokyo. Yamaji was born in 1983 in Shimonoseki, in Yamaguchi Prefecture. In 2000, at 16, he killed his mother, and he was provisionally released from a youth correctional center in 2003. On November 17, 2005, two sisters, aged 27 and 19, were killed in their apartment in Osaka's Naniwa Ward. On December 13, 2006, the Osaka District Court sentenced Yamaji to death for raping and killing the women, robbing them and setting fire to the apartment to conceal the crime.
According to Amnesty International, Yamaji and Maeue had both withdrawn their appeals at the High Court, and the three executions brought Japan's total for the year to seven.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.
Bunshun Online reported that Yamaji was arrested for the sisters' killings on December 5, 2005, while AFP reported that Osaka police arrested him on December 19.
Sources
- Japan executes three inmates: govt, The Sydney Morning Herald (AFP)
- Urgent Action UA 54/09: Japan executions, Amnesty International
- Osaka District Court judgment, December 13, 2006, Courts in Japan
- 'I couldn't forget the feeling', News24 (AFP)
- Bunshun Online feature on Yukio Yamaji, Shukan Bunshun