JAPAN: DEATH UPHELD FOR EX-CONSTRUCTION FIRM HEAD FOR KILLING EMPLOYEES

in Japan, the Tokyo High Court upheld the death sentence for a former president of a bankrupt construction company for killing three employees in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1997 and 2000. The court dismissed an appeal by Yoshihiro Asa, 58, who has pleaded not guilty. The defendant has admitted to assaulting one of the employees, but says he had nothing to do with his death or the deaths of the two other employees. Asa is charged with confining and strangling two employees of his company at a campsite in Tsuru, Yamanashi Prefecture, in May 2000, in conspiracy with other employees and a gangster boss, and of beating another employee with a wooden sword at the firm's office in around March 1997 and causing his death several days later. Police in October 2003 dug up the bodies of the three victims at the campsite.