JAPAN: OSAKA MAN GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR CHILD MURDERS

A court in Osaka on 19 December 2018 sentenced a man to death for the murders of a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.
48-year-old Koji Yamada was accused of suffocating the children from Neyagawa City in August 2015.
The trial began last month at the Osaka District Court. Prosecutors demanded the death penalty.
Yamada's lawyers argued that a 12-year prison sentence was appropriate because the boy died of a sudden illness and the killing of the girl amounted to injury resulting in death.
Presiding judge Ryuta Asaka handed down the ruling.