A sentenced to death, nicknamed the “Twitter murderer”, was executed for hanging on Friday in Japan, the first application of capital punishment since July 2022 in the country, for which it had murdered and dismembered nine people gathered online.
Takahiro Shiraishi, 34, was hanged for killing nine people, including eight women, after having contacted them through the social network now called X.
The man aimed at Internet users who mentioned online suicidal projects telling them that he could help them and even die by his side.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said Friday at a press conference in Tokyo, that the crimes of Mr. Shiraishi, committed in 2017, included in particular “robbery, rape, murder … destruction and abandonment of corpses.”
“The nine victims were beaten and strangled, killed, stolen, then mutilated. The matches of their bodies were hidden in boxes, other releases in a discharge,” said Suzuki.
According to him, the murderer acted “to selfishly satisfy his sexual and financial desires,” for murders that “shocked and worried society deeply.”
“After a deep reflection, I ordered its execution,” he concluded.
Horrors house
After having attracted them to their small apartment in Zama, in the great suburbs of the southwest tokyo, Shiraishi had killed his victims and dismembered the bodies.
On October 31, 2017, the Police discovered a true horrors of horrors in their home: 240 pieces of human remains hidden in refrigerators and toolbox, sprinkled with cat sand to try to hide the rotten smells.
Cissals, knives, saw and several carpentry tools had been found at home.
Police had finally arrested her when she was investigating the disappearance of a 23 -year -old woman, whose brother had been able to connect to her Twitter account. He had noticed on the exchange platform with a suspicious account. That he had proven to be one of those used by Mr. Shiraishi to present himself as a “professional executioner.”
He had been sentenced to death in 2020 for the murders of his nine victims, aged 15 to 26.
During the trial, his lawyers had argued for life, believing that their victims had expressed suicidal thoughts about social networks and, therefore, had accepted their death.
The court had not retained this argument, judging that the case “caused great anxiety in society”, and had condemned it to the death penalty when hanging, the only practice used in Japan for capital punishment. He had stopped appealing.
“The dignity of the victims has been trampled,” said the magistrate, adding that Mr. Shiraishi attacked “psychologically fragile.”
About 100 death runners
This case had shocked Japan, a country where the crime rate is very low, and had also had a strong international impact.
The “Twitter murderer” issue, as the Japanese press had nicknamed, had revived debates about social networks control in Japan, as well as suicide and their prevention. Japan has the highest suicide rate among the G7 industrialized countries.
About 100 prisoners convicted of death are currently waiting for the execution of their sentence and among them 49 have requested a new trial, Minister Keisuke Suzuki said on Friday.
Japanese law stipulates that executions must take place within six months after the exhaustion of all remedies.
In fact, convicted persons often remain years or even decades, waiting for their execution, in strict insulation conditions.
Japan and the United States are the only G7 countries that apply the death penalty, usually for people convicted of multiple homicides.
The authorities justify their maintenance for the support that enjoys among the population, despite the criticisms from abroad, in particular human rights organizations.
The last execution in Japan dates back to July 2022, with the hanging of Volohiro Kato, convicted of having killed seven people in 2008 in Akihabara hurrying to the crowd with a truck before stabbing passers -by.
Source: BFM TV
