TOKYO (AP) — A person convicted of homicide for killing and dismembering 9 folks in his residence close to Tokyo was executed Friday, Japan’s Justice Ministry mentioned.
Takahiro Shiraishi, often known as the “Twitter killer,” was sentenced to loss of life in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the 9 victims, most of whom had posted suicidal ideas on social media. He was additionally convicted of sexually abusing feminine victims.
The execution was carried out as calls develop to abolish capital punishment in Japan because the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada final yr.
Shiraishi was hanged on the Tokyo Detention Home in excessive secrecy with nothing disclosed till the execution was achieved.
Police arrested him in 2017 after discovering the our bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage circumstances in his residence.
Investigators mentioned Shiraishi approached the victims by way of Twitter, providing to help them with their suicidal needs. He killed the eight girls, together with youngsters, after raping them, and likewise killed a boyfriend of one of many girls to silence him.
Japan’s suicide fee ranks among the many world’s highest. Following a latest decline, the quantity has climbed again this yr as folks had been hit by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Japan’s crime fee is comparatively low, nevertheless it has seen some high-profile mass killings in recent times.
