Indefinite Term Sought for Murder of Otsu Probation Officer

Otsu, Shiga Pref., Feb. 24 (Jiji Press)–Japanese prosecutors on Tuesday sought an indefinite prison term for a 36-year-old unemployed man for murdering a volunteer probation officer in Otsu in the western prefecture of Shiga during his probation in May 2024. The key issue of the lay-judge trial at Otsu District Court is whether the defendant, Kohei Iitsuka, has the capacity to bear criminal responsibility for killing Hiroshi Shinjo, 60, while he was on probation for robbing a convenience store. The prosecutors asserted that his crime had a grave impact on the operation of the probation officer system. The defense said that a fixed-term prison sentence was reasonable. The ruling is set for Monday. In their closing argument, the prosecutors said that the defendant had acted with premeditation, noting that he had scouted the area around the crime scene in advance and selected weapons suited to the murder. He was found to have a tendency toward autism spectrum disorder but the impact of the disorder on him was limited, and thus he had full competency to bear criminal responsibility, they said. The prosecutors said his crime was highly malicious as he intended to undermine the probation system by killing the probation officer. The defense argued that Iitsuka was not mentally competent or that he had diminished capacity to bear criminal responsibility, and that he could be rehabilitated through proper treatment. In his final statement, Iitsuka apologized, calling the incident “the biggest mistake of my life.” Shinjo’s wife said that she wants him to live his life facing what he did and the fact that he took an irreplaceable life. According to the indictment, the defendant fatally stabbed and slashed Shinjo in the chest and neck several times with a knife and an ax on May 24, 2024, during an interview at the probation officer’s house. Shinjo died from hemorrhagic shock. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]