Japan sentences man to death for Kyoto anime studio fire that killed 36
Al Jazeera
Judge says attack on renowned Kyoto Animation by Shinji Aoba, 45, ‘instantly turned the studio into hell’.
A court in Japan has sentenced a man to death after he was convicted of murdering 36 people in an arson attack on a Kyoto animation studio in 2019.
The Kyoto District Court on Thursday said it found Shinji Aoba, 45, mentally capable of facing punishment for murder, arson and other crimes in the attack on Kyoto Animation’s Studio 1 on July 18 that year which shocked Japan and drew an outpouring of grief from anime fans worldwide.
Prosecutors said Aoba had been motivated by a grudge against the studio, which he claimed had stolen his ideas after rejecting his novels in an annual contest. The court found no evidence the studio had plagiarised his work.
NHK national TV, quoted Judge Keisuke Masuda, as saying: “The attack that instantly turned the studio into hell and took the precious lives of 36 people, caused them indescribable pain.”
Survivors reported that on the morning of the attack, Aoba had broken into the building, spreading petrol on the ground floor and lighting it while shouting “drop dead”.
