Japan's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence imposed...

Japan's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence imposed on Wong Yeesun, a 35-year-old Malaysian national convicted of killing three people and injuring another during robberies in four prefectures in Japan in 1993. Wong, conspiring with three Japanese accomplices, allegedly stabbed two people to death, shot one person dead and seriously injured another with a knife during robberies which netted him 15 million yen in cash and 17 million yen in goods between October and December 1993 in Tokyo, Shizuoka, Shiga and Gunma. Wong, a former restaurant employee, and his defense counsel had appealed the March 1998 Tokyo High Court ruling, saying he just followed the accomplices when breaking into locations including the home of a money lender and a game cafe. However, in the ruling at the court's First Petty Bench, Presiding Justice Niro Shimada said Wong "played crucial roles and actively committed the crimes." "The capital punishment is unavoidable" even if the court considered there was someone taking a bigger lead role than the defendant, he said. In July 1996, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Wong to death and he appealed the ruling. The Tokyo High Court upheld the district court decision. One of the three accomplices received a death sentence at the high court in May 2001 and appealed to the top court. Two others received life and 13-year prison terms, respectively, at the district court. They did not appeal.