Ex-Doctor Denies Murder of ALS Patient at Kyoto Court

From Jiji

May 29 2023

KYOTO – A former doctor on Monday pleaded not guilty of murdering an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient in conspiracy with another doctor at the victim’s request. 

 “I didn’t conspire or murder,” Naoki Yamamoto, 45, said in the first hearing of his trial at Kyoto District Court.

According to the indictment, Yamamoto in November 2019 conspired with Yoshikazu Okubo, also 45, to administer a drug to the ALS patient, then 51, at her request at her apartment in the western Japan city of Kyoto, causing her to die of acute drug poisoning.

In February this year, the same district court sentenced Yamamoto to 13 years in prison for killing his father in 2011. Yamamoto has appealed against the ruling.

The date for the first hearing of Okubo’s trial has yet to be fixed, with pretrial procedures still going on.