A memorial ceremony was held on Monday to remember the 36 victims of the July 2019 arson attack on Kyoto Animation Co.’s No. 1 studio in the western Japan city of Kyoto, marking the third anniversary of the tragedy.
Newspapers, including one reporting on the July 2019 deadly arson attack on a studio of Kyoto Animation Co., have been found at a home where the suspect in Friday’s arson attack on a building in the city of Osaka, western Japan, was believed to have been living, investigative sources said Tuesday.
The number of victims makes the attack one of Japan’s biggest-ever mass murders. This suspect’s motive as well as his mental competency are expected to be the focus of his trial.
Doctor Takahiro Ueda made all-out efforts to save the life of the suspect of a deadly arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio in 2019, as he hoped to help uncover the truth behind the crime. “All I was thinking about was to save his life,” Ueda, 49, said in an interview with Jiji Press.
The Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office accused the suspect, aged 42, of murder and other charges, after judging that he was criminally liable at the time of the attack, from the results of a psychiatric diagnosis of him that was conducted over a half year.
Prosecutors in Kyoto said on Friday that the suspect’s psychiatric analysis ended after about six months. Sources say the prosecutors have determined through the analysis that the suspect is mentally competent to be held criminally liable for the attack.
The suspect, aged 42, who suffered severe burns all over his body during the attack, was carried into the courtroom on a stretcher.
Japan’s Supreme Court on Friday backed a district court’s approval of the detention of a severely injured suspect for the deadly arson attack last year at a studio of Kyoto Animation Co., also known as KyoAni by anime fans.
In an unusual move, the police prepared a care bed with nursing staff before arresting and putting him into custody, so that they can question him while he is lying in bed.
The suspect in a deadly arson attack last July on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio has said he thought there were only “about two” victims in the fire, which killed 36 people, investigative sources said Thursday.
Barrier Free Japan