Society

Woman gets 11 years for murder of mentally ill husband with son's help

Mar 08 (Japan Today) - A Japanese court on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 11 years in prison over the 2011 murder of her mentally ill husband with the help of their son, a former doctor indicted for the alleged consensual killing of a terminally ill woman.

The Kyoto District Court found Junko Yamamoto, 78, guilty of killing her 77-year-old husband Yasushi at an apartment in Tokyo by unknown means in collusion with her son Naoki, 45, and his acquaintance Yoshikazu Okubo, a 44-year-old doctor.

In handing down the ruling, presiding judge Hiroshi Kawakami said the defendant had for years shunned her husband, who had been hospitalized for treatment of his mental illness.

The judge said that she contacted a crematorium ahead of time at her son's instruction, and convinced the hospital in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture to discharge her husband based on false information.

His death some seven hours after leaving hospital could not be considered natural, the court said, ruling he was killed. ...continue reading

Source: ANNnewsCH

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