Proposing 18-year prison sentence for the killer of Vietnamese students in Japan

Police at the crime scene in Osaka, Japan at about 9:46 pm on August 2. The incident happened near Ebisu Bridge, on the Dotonbori River – Photo: MAINICHI SHIMBUN

According to the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Tokyo, at the trial starting on May 16, defendant Alberto, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, denied the accusation of murder against TTA victim – a Vietnamese student in Vietnam. Osaka.

Defense lawyers argued that the victim attacked first and that the defendant was only “justifiably defending”.

However, the Osaka prefectural prosecutor’s office gave clear evidence that the defendant intentionally attacked when the victim was completely unresisting, and then pushed the exhausted victim into the river. This is the main cause of the victim’s subsequent death. Therefore, the recommended sentence for the accused is 18 years in prison.

According to the indictment, on August 2, 2021, Alberto, 26 years old, with no job, no permanent residence, beat and kicked the victim, TTA, a Vietnamese international student, into the Dotonbori River (area in the area). Namba, Osaka, Japan), causing the victim’s death on the evening of the same day. Three days later, the Osaka Prefectural Police arrested the perpetrator and prosecuted the murder.

The incident has caused a wave of anger in public opinion in Vietnam and the Vietnamese community in Japan. There are opinions that the 18-year prison sentence is still not enough of a deterrent, not commensurate with the brutal behavior of the perpetrator who deliberately took the victim’s life to the end.

It is expected that the final sentence will be officially announced by the court on June 6.