A Japanese court on Thursday (January 25, 2024) sentenced a 45-year-old man to death for an arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto in 2019.
The incident had left 36 people dead.
Prosecutors charged Aoba Shinji with murder and arson after he doused Kyoto Animation’s studio with gasoline and started a fire in July 2019, reported NHK World.
During the hearing, presiding judge Masuda Keisuke ruled that the attacker was neither insane nor had diminished capacity.
Masuda said it is way too grave and tragic that 36 people died and the victims’ terror and pain are beyond description, NHK reported.
The defence lawyers claimed Aoba suffered from a mental disorder.
The lawyers said he could not be held criminal.