Japan Executes 'Twitter Killer' for 9 Murders After 7 Years

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Photo:AFP

A man in Japan, 34-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, was executed on Friday for killing nine people in 2017. He found his victims on Twitter. Most of them were young women who had posted about feeling suicidal. He messaged them, saying he would help them or even die with them. But instead, he took them to his home near Tokyo, where he killed and cut up their bodies.

He hid body parts in coolers and toolboxes with cat litter to try to cover the smell. One of the women was only 15 years old.

The police found out after a woman’s brother checked her Twitter and helped police track the killer. When officers searched his apartment, they discovered the terrible truth.

Shiraishi’s lawyers said the victims wanted to die, so it wasn’t murder. But the judge said the man took advantage of their pain and called his crimes cruel and evil.

Japan uses the death penalty and hangs people who are sentenced. This was the first time someone was executed in Japan since 2022.

Right now, about 100 people are waiting on death row in Japan. Some have been waiting for years.

Japan is one of the few rich countries that still uses hanging as punishment. Many people support it there, but human rights groups often say it's unfair and kept secret.