The building housing the Osaka District Court, the Osaka High Court and the Osaka Summary Court is pictured in Osaka’s Kita Ward. (Mainichi)
OSAKA (Kyodo) — A Japanese high court on Tuesday backed a man’s decision to drop his appeal against the death sentence he is facing over the 2019 deadly arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio, rejecting his defense team’s plea seeking to nullify the appeal withdrawal.
The latest development confirms the capital punishment handed to Shinji Aoba, 47, who dropped his appeal in January last year, finalizing the district court’s verdict over one of the country’s worst mass-murders that took place at the internationally famous animation production studio.
Aoba’s defense had quickly filed a petition with the Osaka High Court, seeking to invalidate his withdrawal of the appeal.
In rejecting the defense’s petition, the high court said Aoba had “no problem in his competence.”
“It is clear that he understood the significance of dropping the appeal,” Presiding Judge Hisashi Ito said.
According to the high court, one of the reasons Aoba made the decision was that given the heinous nature of the crime, he thought there was no chance the death sentence would be overturned.
Aoba’s lawyers can still file an objection.
In January 2024, the Kyoto District Court sentenced Aoba to death for the arson attack, finding him mentally competent to be held accountable for his crimes.
He intruded into the Kyoto Animation studio’s premises on July 18, 2019, and set the building on fire with gasoline, killing 36 people and injuring another 32.
AloJapan.com