World News

Kobe killer set free from reformatory

A 21-year-old man who strangled and decapitated a boy and bludgeoned a girl to death when he was 14 in one of Japan's most notorious juvenile crimes was paroled March 10, having spent more than six years at a medical reformatory, the Justice Ministry announced.

Authorities provisionally released the man from the institute in suburban Tokyo after he completed rehabilitation and education programs.

The offender was in his third year in junior high school when he committed the two murders and wounded three other children in Kobe in 1997.

A three-member panel of the Kanto Regional Parole Board accepted the request for parole, filed in March 2003.

Tetsuo Obata, chairman of the parole board, told reporters that the board judged he has been rehabilitated to a desirable level and should be released so he can make a smooth return to society.

"The board has interviewed the man on various occasions and closely examined his correctional state," Obata said. "(We) came to conclude that psychiatric care and correctional education at reformatories have obtained good results."

To help the man proceed with rehabilitation in society until his detention term expires at the end of December, the board has selected a place where he will live and mapped out plans for his daily life, Obata said.

The place of residence will not be released so he can quietly obtain work and become able to support himself, Obata said. The man's name likewise will be withheld because he was a minor at the time of the crimes.

(AP, The Japan Times)

Shukan ST: March 19, 2004

(C) All rights reserved