KYOTO, (Japan): (Bernama-Kyodo) A Japanese court on Friday (Oct 16) acquitted a yakuza gangster of the murder of the president of the company operating the Gyoza no Ohsho restaurant chain in 2013, Kyodo News reported.
During his trial at the Kyoto District Court, Yukio Tanaka, a 59-year-old senior member of an affiliate of Kudo-kai, one of Japan's major yakuza crime syndicates, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ohsho Food Service Corp. President Takayuki Ohigashi, 72. Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment.
Prosecutors had sought to prove the charges based on circumstantial evidence, including a cigarette butt found near the crime scene with DNA that matched Tanaka's, a stolen motorcycle on which gunshot residue was found, and security camera footage from near Ohigashi's residence.
While prosecutors argued that Tanaka, who had no direct acquaintance with Ohigashi, was the perpetrator, they did not address the motive or the circumstances surrounding the case.
The defence countered that since smoking residue was not found at the scene, the cigarette was not smoked there. They argued that the cigarette butt had been planted to frame Tanaka.
In handing down the ruling, the court said it was difficult to rule out the possibility that the cigarette butt had been brought to the scene from another location.
According to the indictment, at around 5.45 am (local time) on Dec 19, 2013, Tanaka conspired with unidentified individuals to shoot Ohigashi in the abdomen and chest with a handgun in front of Ohsho Food Service's headquarters in Kyoto's Yamashina Ward, causing him to bleed to death. - Bernama-Kyodo
