Japan has executed Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the Twitter killer, for the 2017 murders of nine people he lured via social media. Shiraishi was convicted of rape, murder, and dismemberment of mostly suicidal victims. His hanging comes amid renewed debate on Japan's use of capital punishment, following a high-profile acquittal in 2023
Takahiro Shiraishi (C) covers his face as he is transported to the prosecutor’s in Tokyo in 2017. FILE PIC/AFP
A man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo was executed on Friday, Japan’s Justice Ministry said.
Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the Twitter killer, was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims.
Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes. He killed the eight women, including teenagers, after raping them, and also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.
The execution was carried out as calls grow to abolish capital punishment in Japan since the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year. Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House in high secrecy with nothing disclosed until the execution was done.
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