KYOTO - A Japanese court on Friday acquitted a yakuza gangster of the murder of the president of the company operating the Gyoza no Ohsho restaurant chain in 2013, amid suggestions he was framed.
During his trial at the Kyoto District Court, Yukio Tanaka, a 59-year-old senior member of an affiliate of Kudo-kai, one of Japan's major yakuza crime syndicates, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ohsho Food Service Corp. President Takayuki Ohigashi, 72. Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment.
Prosecutors had sought to prove the charges based on a body of circumstantial evidence, including a cigarette butt found near the crime scene with DNA that matched Tanaka's, a stolen motorcycle on which gunshot residue was found, and security camera footage from near Ohigashi's residence.
While they argued that Tanaka, who had no direct acquaintance with Ohigashi, was the perpetrator, they did not address the motive or the circumstances surrounding the case.
The defense argued that since smoking residue such as ash was not found at the scene, the cigarette was not smoked there. They contended that the butt had been planted to frame Tanaka.
In handing down the ruling, the court said it was difficult to rule out the possibility that the cigarette butt had been brought to the scene from another location.
It also added that the person captured on a security camera near Ohigashi's home "cannot be identified as the defendant simply because his physical characteristics match," saying there was "room for reasonable doubt" regarding whether Tanaka was the perpetrator.
According to the indictment, at around 5:45 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2013, Tanaka conspired with unidentified individuals to shoot Ohigashi in the abdomen and chest with a handgun in front of Ohsho Food Service's headquarters in Kyoto's Yamashina Ward, causing him to bleed to death.
After the ruling, Ohigashi's bereaved family said in a statement, saying that they are "extremely disappointed by this unexpected verdict."
"This is an extremely unjust ruling, and we have strongly urged the Public Prosecutors Office to appeal," the statement said.
Naoto Watanabe, president of Ohsho Food Service, refrained from comment on the ruling, saying that the legal process may continue. "We will continue to hope that the full details of the case will emerge," he said.
