CHINESE COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR JAPANESE NATIONAL

a Chinese court upheld the death sentence for a Japanese man convicted of attempting to smuggle drugs from China to Japan in 2003, an official at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang said. The Higher People's Court in China's northeastern Liaoning Province rejected an appeal filed by Katsuo Mori, 64, the official said. While the court's decision finalizes the ruling, the country's Supreme Court must approve the death penalty before it is carried out, under a new rule enacted this year. According to the indictment, Mori was detained at Shenyang's airport in July 2003 for trying to smuggle 1.25 kilograms of stimulant drugs from there to Japan. A lower court handed down the death penalty in February 2004. In August, the Liaoning high court also upheld death penalties for two other Japanese convicted of drug smuggling.