JAPAN. HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR TWO MURDERS

March 25, 2008: in Japan, the Tokyo High Court upheld a death sentence against a man convicted of strangling his wife and murdering a colleague who criticised his lover.
The High Court dismissed an appeal by convicted killer Osamu Okura, 39, and supported a death sentence handed to him by the Shizuoka District Court in February, 2007.
Okura, a former co-op worker, was convicted of fatally stabbing a 37 year old colleague in September, 2004, after becoming infuriated when the colleague criticised a woman with whom he was having an affair.
Afterwards, he buried the colleague's body in Shizuoka, according to the ruling. In September the following year, Okura strangled his 36 year old wife at home, and then chopped up her body and discarded the pieces in three places in a mountain region in the prefecture, the ruling said. (Sources: Mainichi, 26/03/2008)