JAPAN. TOP COURT REJECTS APPEAL AGAINST DEATH SENTENCE FOR SOUTH KOREAN

Japan’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a South Korean man sentenced to death for killing two people in 1995 in Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures, a move that will let his death sentence stand.
The top court's No. 2 Petty Bench dismissed the appeal by Pak Il Gwang, 59, who exercised his right to remain silent during police investigations and pleaded not guilty in the trial.
His defence counsel claimed that a DNA analysis of bloodstains on the victims' clothes and other belongings, which linked Pak to the murders in the prosecution's argument, ''is not reliable.''
According to the ruling by the Fukuoka High Court in March 2003, Pak stabbed to death a 41-year-old woman he previously had relations with at a Japanese-style bar in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, on January 12, 1995. He also killed a 59-year-old driver of a taxi he took in the city of Fukuoka on January 28 when he was on the run, and took several thousands of yen from him.