Yakuza Exec. Found Not Guilty in 2013 Ohsho Pres. Murder

Kyoto, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--Kyoto District Court on Friday found a 59-year-old gang member not guilty of the 2013 murder of the president of "gyoza" dumpling restaurant chain Ohsho Food Service Corp.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for the defendant, Yukio Tanaka, a high-ranking member of an affiliate of Kudokai, a legally designated dangerous yakuza group.

According to the indictment, Tanaka conspired with an unnamed individual and killed then 72-year-old Takayuki Ohigashi by shooting him in the chest and abdomen in a parking lot in front of the company's headquarters in the western Japan city of Kyoto in the early morning of Dec. 19, 2013.

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