OSAKA (Kyodo) — A man charged with the 2019 fatal arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio will contest his criminal liability and seek to overturn his death sentence at his appeal trial, after a lower court found him mentally competent to be held accountable for his crimes, a source close to the matter said Wednesday.
The defense team for Shinji Aoba, 46, has submitted to the Osaka High Court a document stating the reasons for the appeal, insisting the Kyoto District Court’s ruling in January was based on a mistaken assessment of Aoba’s criminal liability.
The date of the first hearing of the appeal trial has yet to be decided. The attack that killed 36 people at the internationally famous animation production studio has gone down as one of Japan’s worst mass murders.
Aoba’s lawyers had sought an acquittal or a lesser sentence in the lower court, arguing Aoba was not of sound mind, based on psychiatric examinations that said he suffered from a delusional disorder.
The defendant had said he carried out the attack under the belief that Kyoto Animation had plagiarized a novel he entered into a contest run by the firm.
The Kyoto District Court acknowledged in its ruling that Aoba did suffer from a delusional disorder, but said his conduct was little affected by it, and that the defendant was “not in a state of mental incompetence or diminished capacity” at the time.
During the appeal trial, Aoba’s defense team will question the district court’s assessment regarding the impact of the delusional disorder on the attack, according to the source.
It will also argue that even if Aoba was criminally liable, death by hanging is cruel and unconstitutional, the source said.
According to the district court ruling, Aoba entered the Kyoto Animation studio’s premises at around 10:30 a.m. on July 18, 2019, where 70 employees were working. He set the building on fire with gasoline, killing 36 people and injuring another 32.
Kyoto anime arsonist to continue to contest liability in appeal trial
