China executes 3 Japanese drug smugglers+

BEIJING, April 9 Kyodo -
China on Friday executed three Japanese men convicted of drug smuggling, three
days after it executed the first Japanese national since the two countries
normalized diplomatic relations in 1972.
Teruo Takeda, 67, and Hironori Ukai, 48, were put to death in Dalian, Liaoning
Province, and Katsuo Mori, 67, in Shenyang, also in the northeastern province,
at 9 a.m., according to Japanese diplomats.
As was the case of Mitsunobu Akano, a 65-year-old man from Osaka Prefecture,
the three men are believed to have been executed by lethal injection because
Liaoning Province abolished execution by shooting last December.
''All individuals, regardless of nationality, were treated equally in the
application of Chinese law, and China's retention of the death penalty for
drugs crimes helped deter and prevent such crimes,'' China's official Xinhua
News Agency quoted the Supreme People's Court as saying in a statement.
Japan conveyed its concern to China about Friday's execution, but Tokyo is
unlikely to lodge a formal protest with Beijing as every country has the
sovereign right to determine which crimes warrant the death penalty, Japanese
officials said in Tokyo.
''The Japanese public's sentiment is that it is too severe to impose the death
penalty on drug criminals,'' a senior Foreign Ministry official said. ''We
cannot help but say we regret the result...But it is difficult to lodge a
protest.''
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Tuesday expressed hope that
Akano's execution and the then planned executions of the three others would not
affect development of Japan-China relations.
Drug smuggling is treated as a serious crime in China. The country's penal code
says offenders face sentences of 15 years' imprisonment, life imprisonment or
death for smuggling stimulant drugs weighing 50 grams or more.
Takeda, from Nagoya, was convicted of buying about 5 kilograms of stimulant
drugs from a Chinese person in June 2003 and passing them on to five people the
following month.
Ukai, from Gifu Prefecture, was found in possession of about 1.5 kg of illegal
drugs when trying to board a plane from Dalian to Osaka, in July 2003.
Mori, from Fukushima Prefecture, was convicted of attempting to smuggle 1.25 kg
of drugs from Shenyang airport to Japan.
The death sentences of the three men were finalized in 2007.
As of January 2009, at least 28 Japanese nationals were detained in China over
drug-related incidents, according to Japanese government data.
As of Friday, nine Japanese -- excluding the three executed -- were detained in
the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.
Many of the stimulant drugs circulating in the provinces are believed to have
been made in North Korea.
Meanwhile, Japanese investigative sources said Friday that Takeda had been on a
wanted list in connection with a 2002 robbery in Fukuoka Prefecture, in which
13 million yen in cash and jewelry were stolen from a city assembly member's
home.
==Kyodo
2010-04-09 23:37:42


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