A former police officer convicted of raping and killing two women was hanged Friday in Japan's first execution in a year.
The Mainichi Daily News, citing sources, said that Susumu Kitagawa was put to death at the Osaka Detention Center. The Justice Ministry announced the execution without naming the prisoner.
Kitagawa, 58, was convicted of raping, robbing and strangling an 18-year-old woman in Chiba in 1983 and a 24-year-old woman in Kochi in 1989.
Japan's most recent executions were in September 2004, when two men were put to death. One had been convicted of killing several school children in a bloody rampage in 2002.
The government is secretive about executions, which are not announced beforehand. Even the condemned person gets almost no notice.
"It is regrettable that an execution was carried out, as we have been asking the Justice Ministry to withhold any executions up until people in Japan fully discuss whether to keep or abandon the death penalty," the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations said in a statement.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
