JAPANESE MAN GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR KILLING ACQUAINTANCE IN THAILAND

a Japanese man was sentenced to death for killing a Japanese acquaintance in Thailand in December 2007. Kengo Ikeda, 60, a native of Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture, suffocated Hiroshi Nakazono, 67, after robbing him of about 3 million yen in cash and abandoned his corpse in the mountains, according to the ruling at a regional court in Pattaya. Nakazono, a realtor from Tokyo who had regularly visited Pattaya earlier, went missing after entering Thailand on December 14, 2007 with 3.47 million yen in cash. His body was found December 26 in the Sattahip District, not far from Pattaya.