Japan hangs Chinese man who murdered family of four in 2003
TOKYO: Japan yesterday hanged a Chinese man convicted of the murder of a family of four whose bodies were found handcuffed and weighted down with dumbbells in a bay, the Justice Minister said.
Ms Masako Mori said she ordered the execution of Wei Wei "after careful consideration", over robbery and multiple murders carried out with two other students in 2003.
"It is an extremely cruel and brutal case in which the happily living family members, including an eight-year-old and 11-year-old, were all murdered because of truly selfish reasons," she said.
Wei, a 40-year-old former language student in Japan, had pleaded guilty to the four murder counts but had contended he was not a central figure in the case.
The trio, reportedly allured by money, robbed the home of Japanese businessman Shinjiro Matsumoto, 41, in south-western city of Fukuoka in June 2003 and strangled him with a tie.
His 40-year-old wife Chika was drowned in a bathtub and the children strangled or smothered.
The bodies were found dumped in Hakata Bay in Fukuoka, handcuffed and weighted down.
The other two suspects fled to China but were arrested there.
One of the two was executed in 2005, according to Jiji Press. The other was sentenced to life in jail.
According to the Asahi Shimbun daily, the first execution of a foreigner since the ministry began announcing the names of those executed was in 2009. - AFP
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