Japanese 'Twitter Killer' executed
A man convicted of killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment in Japan was executed in Tokyo this morning (Friday) in a case that has shocked the normally peaceful law abiding Asian country.
Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the 'Twitter killer,' was sentenced to death in 2020 for murdering nine victims in 2017, and was also convicted of sexually abusing his female victims, before dismembering their bodies and storing them in freezers in his home.
Police arrested him after finding the bodies of eight teenage girls and women, as well as one man, in cold-storage cases in his apartment. Takahiro Shiraishi. Pic: STR/AFP via Getty Images
Police investigators said Shiraishi contacted his victims, who had shown signs of suicidal ideation, via Twitter and offered to help them take their own lives, calling himself a 'Hanging Pro'
He was convicted of the rape and murder of three teenage girls and five women, and also of the murder of the boyfriend of one of the women.
The Japanese Justice Minister 'Keisuke Suzuki' said the case has caused extremely serious outcomes and has dealt a major shockwave and caused unease to Japanese society. He signed the execution order earlier this week, but did not witness this mornings (Fridays) hanging. A file image of Tokyo Detention House. Pic: Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images
Executions are carried out in secret in Japan, where prisoners are not even informed of their fate until the morning of their hanging, and while Japans crime rate is low, it has seen some high-profile mass killings in the past few years.
Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading Industrialised nations (G7) that retain capital punishment.
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