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A man found guilty of murdering nine individuals, most of whom had expressed suicidal thoughts on social media, has been executed in Japan.
Takahiro Shiraishi, also known as the “Twitter killer,” was sentenced to death in 2020 for the 2017 killings and dismemberment of nine victims in his apartment near Tokyo.
This execution was the first capital punishment carried out in the country in nearly three years and comes amid growing calls to abolish the measure following the acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate, last year.
Hakamada was released after 56 years on death row, as a retrial revealed that police had fabricated and planted evidence against him in connection with the 1966 murders of his boss, wife, and two children.
Eight of Shiraishi’s victims were women, including teenagers, whom he killed after sexually assaulting them. He also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.
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Shiraishi’s execution comes shortly after a court ruled in 2021 that police had falsified statements and fabricated evidence in their investigation of him, resulting in his retrial and resencing.
