TOKYO: Japan on Tuesday executed three prisoners on death row, the first since December 2019, local media reported citing unnamed sources including from the justice ministry.
The executions were the first under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October and won a general election the same month.
Japan, where more than 100 inmates await execution, is one of the few developed nations that still have the death penalty.
Public support for capital punishment remains high despite international criticism, including from rights groups.
The country executed three inmates in 2019 and 15 in 2018 — including 13 from the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out a fatal 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
Executions are usually implemented long after sentencing, always by hanging.
Deputy chief cabinet secretary Seiji Kihara declined to comment on the reported executions at a regular briefing on Tuesday.
“Whether to keep the death sentence system or not is an important issue that concerns the foundation of Japan’s criminal justice system,” he said.
For decades, authorities have told death row inmates just hours before an execution is carried out — a process that two inmates argue is illegal and causes psychological distress.
The pair are suing the government over the system, and are also seeking compensation of 22 million yen ($194,000) for the distress caused by living with uncertainty about their execution date.
Documents and news archives show that Japan used to give death row inmates more notice, but stopped around 1975.
In December 2020, Japan’s top court overturned a ruling blocking the retrial of a man described as the world’s longest-serving death row inmate, raising new hope for the now 85-year-old.
Iwao Hakamada has lived under a death sentence for more than half a century after being convicted of robbing and murdering his boss, the man’s wife, and their two teenaged children.
But he and his supporters say he confessed to the crime only after an allegedly brutal police interrogation that included beatings, and that evidence in the case was planted.
Also last December, a man dubbed the “Twitter killer” was sentenced to death for murdering and dismembering nine people he met on the social media platform.
Japan executes three on death row, first since 2019: media
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Japan executes three on death row, first since 2019: media
- Japan is one of the few developed nations that still have the death penalty
- More than 100 inmates await execution
A Paris court finds 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron
PARIS: A Paris court found Monday 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations she was born a man.
The court convicted all defendants to sentences ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences.
The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, are accused of having posted “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron ‘s wife was born a man and linking their 24-year age gap to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.
Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October. Speaking on TF1 national television Sunday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.
Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who is known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered to have played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021. She was given a 6-month prison sentence.
The X account of Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, was suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations. Poirson-Atlan was given an 8-month prison sentence.
Other defendants include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist. Several told the court their comments were intended as humor or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted.
The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.
The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.
Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been France’s president since 2017.
