By Hadiza Mohammed
A Tokyo court on Friday sentenced a 37-year-old man to 19 years’ imprisonment for stabbing three passengers in a random knife attack on a Tokyo commuter train in August 2021.
Tokyo District Court said in its ruling said that Yusuke Tsushima, who had admitted to the charge of attempted murder of the three victims, “attacked passengers randomly one after another with a strong intent to kill.”
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term for the defendant, while his defense team requested 15 years, arguing his intent to murder was insufficiently strong.
In his final statement at the trial, however, Tsushima said he was convinced by prosecutors’ call for a 20-year sentence, and apologized.
According to the indictment, Tsushima seriously injured a then 20-year-old university student by stabbing her several times in the chest and back and also injured a woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s on an Odakyu Electric Railway train on Aug. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/NAN)
