27 Yrs Sought for Hokkaido Girl Murder Suspect

Asahikawa, Hokkaido, June 8 (Jiji Press)–Public prosecutors on Monday demanded a 27-year prison term for a woman suspected of killing a 17-year-old girl by allegedly causing her to fall from a suspension bridge in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido in 2024. At the lay judge trial at Asahikawa District Court, the prosecutors slammed the defendant, Riko Uchida, saying that she was the mastermind of the incident and her actions, which “trampled on the dignity of the girl’s personality,” were “extremely brutal.” The defense emphasized in the final plea that Uchida did not actually kill the girl. The verdict will be handed down to the 23-year-old defendant on June 22. The prosecutors alleged that Uchida and at least one other person “applied some physical force” to the high school girl, who had a social media photo problem with Uchida, so she would fall off the suspension bridge in the city of Asahikawa. Even if the girl was not pushed directly, actions leading to her drop should amount to murder, they argued. The prosecutors also claimed that Uchida and others took the girl into a car, locked her up for a long time and assaulted her. Forced to sit naked on the bridge’s railing and repeatedly yelled at, she “must have been pushed to the mental limit where she could think of nothing but falling from the bridge,” they said. Meanwhile, the defense side denied Uchida intended to kill the girl and said that she did not witness the moment the girl fell from the bridge. Uchida said: “I felt the weight of the result once again. I will spend days of reflection, apology and atonement.” Ahead of the arguments, the deceased girl’s father tearfully called for a punishment that would reflect his daughter’s wishes. According to the indictment, on April 18-19, 2024 Uchida conspired with others, including an already convicted 21-year-old woman, to make the victim sit naked on the bridge’s railing, videoed her apology and killed the girl by forcing her to fall into the river below, after shouting “Fall!” and “Just die!” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]