MAEBASHI -- A gang boss was sentenced to death Monday for masterminding the shooting deaths of five people including two rival gang leaders in two incidents.

The Maebashi District Court convicted Osamu Yano, 58, of playing a leading role in the murder of four people at a bar in Maebashi in an attack on a rival gang boss. He was also found guilty of the shooting death of another rival gang leader at a hospital.

"The lives of five people were lost in these incidents. The defendant's responsibility as the mastermind is extremely heavy," Presiding Judge Yoshifumi Asayama said as he handed down the ruling. "He suddenly fired more than 10 shots at the bar in an indiscriminate terrorist attack. A number of ordinary citizens were victims."

Yano, leader of a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate, ordered Masato Kohinata, 38, to murder the leader of a rival crime syndicate in early 2003, according to the ruling.

Kohinata fired shots in a bar in Maebashi on Jan. 25, 2003, killing three customers and a former yakuza who was guarding an ex-rival gang boss, the court found. In the incident, the ex-gang boss and another person suffered serious injuries.

Yano also conspired with another 58-year-old gang boss affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai to shoot another rival gang boss to death who was undergoing treatment at an intensive care unit of a Tokyo hospital on Feb. 25, 2002, the judge said.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment