Tokyo: A court in Japan convicted an alleged gangster and sentenced him to death today for the fatal shooting of a popular mayor in a crime that stunned a nation that takes pride in its rigid gun-control laws.

The defendant was convicted of murder and sentenced to death today in Nagasaki District Court, court spokesman Hiroyuki Mano said. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, while the defence had argued that was too harsh.

Mayor Iccho Ito, 61, was shot twice in the back at close range outside a train station in April last year while campaigning for re-election for his fourth term.

The crime was lambasted as an act of violence that aimed to stifle democracy. It also raised fears about guns on the streets as well as about organised crime in a nation that has long boasted a relatively crime-free record.

Tetsuya Shiroo, 60, who police say is a senior member of Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organised crime syndicate, was arrested on the scene. He told police he was angry at the city for refusing to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public works construction site.

The assassination was all the more tragic as the second attack in 20 years against the mayor of the southwestern city whose politicians historically have been outspoken pacifists.

In 1990, Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot and seriously wounded after saying that Japan's emperor bore some responsibility for World War II, enraging rightist-leaning nationalists. A right-wing terrorist was arrested in that attack.
Source : PTI