Ex-gangster sentenced to death for murdering 2 in Saitama in 2003

The Saitama District Court on Thursday sentenced a former gangster to death for murdering two people and seriously injuring two others in Saitama Prefecture in August 2003. The court found Hidenori Ogata, 29, guilty of killing Hideaki Suzuki, 28, over disputes about Suzuki's relationship with his girlfriend.

The girlfriend, then age 16, was sentenced by the Saitama District Court in 2004 to an indeterminate sentence of between five to 10 years in prison for encouraging Ogata to kill Suzuki. The ruling for the woman, now age 20, has been finalized. Ogata stabbed Suzuki to death on Aug 18, 2003, in a condominium in Kumagaya. He also abducted three women who were at the scene and strangled one of them, Ai Kanto, 21.