An appeal against the death sentence handed down to...

An appeal against the death sentence handed down to one of the Tokyo twins who brutally killed two men to take over their successful S&M club business in 1995 was rejected by the Tokyo High Court.Presiding Judge Toshio Takagi upheld a Tokyo District Court ruling that Shinji Mutsuta should be sent to the gallows for taking a leading part in the killing of the owner and the manager of the sex club where he worked."It is crystal clear that the defendant murdered the two people to take over the sex club," Takagi said. "Although the defendant has shown remorse and apologized to the victims' bereaved families, the death penalty is not too severe."The 30-year-old Mutsuta, his twin brother, Kenji, and a fellow employee of the S&M club killed the owner Seiji Hashiguchi and the manager with a knife and a hammer in December 1995.The trio stole 200,000 yen in cash from Hashiguchi and then encased the bodies of their victims in concrete before dumping them into the sea in Ibaraki Prefecture.Later the twins withdrew some 40 million yen from Hashiguchi's bank account.Kenji is serving a life sentence after his appeal was rejected by the high court on Sept. 6. The twins' colleague who helped in the killings is also in jail after being slapped with 15-year jail term in 1998.