Japan executes 2003 family murderer

December 26, 2019

Tokyo, Dec. 26 (Jiji Press)--Japan on Thursday executed a 40-year-old Chinese death-row prisoner convicted of 2003 family murder in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka, the Justice Ministry said.

The execution, carried out at the Fukuoka detention house, was the first capital punishment conducted in the country since August this year, when two death-row convicts were executed.

It was also the first capital punishment since Justice Minister Masako Mori took office Oct. 31.

The inmate, Wei Wei, "committed a cruel and brutal crime for a self-centered reason, killing all members of the family living a happy life," Mori told a press conference.

"After careful consideration, I ordered the execution," she said, adding that she signed the execution order Monday.

After the execution, the number of death-row inmates in Japan stands at 111, the ministry said.

According to the final court ruling, Wei, a former vocational school student, colluded with two other Chinese nationals and broke into the house of clothing retailer Shinjiro Matsumoto, then 41, for robbery in the small hours of June 20, 2003.

The group killed Matsumoto's wife, 40, and their 11-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter and abandoned their bodies in Hakata Bay off Fukuoka Prefecture, together with that of Matsumoto, who had been choked into a state of suspended animation.

In the first trial, Fukuoka District Court handed down a death sentence in May 2005 as demanded by public prosecutors. The verdict was supported by Fukuoka High Court in March 2007.

The ruling became final after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the accused in October 2011.

The two accomplices were held in China. One was executed in 2005, while the other got an indefinite prison term. Jiji Press