The high court will announce its ruling on April 11. If the appeal is not
successful, Ichihashi will have the right to appeal that decision to Japan’s
Supreme Court.
The Hawkers had offered to return to Tokyo for the hearing, but prosecutors
sid their presence was not required.
Instead, Miss Hawker’s parents and sisters submitted statements to the court
expressing their feelings.
The letters were read to the court by Yoshinobu Iida, the presiding judge, and
repeated their belief that Ichihashi feels no regret for his actions as he
was still trying to evade the police when he was captured, while his offer
to donate the royalties from a book he wrote while awaiting trial have
caused them pain and disgust.
Miss Hawker was badly beaten and strangled in the suspect’s apartment in the
Gyotoku district, east of Tokyo, in March 2007. Her naked body was found
buried in sand in a bathtub on the balcony of the apartment.
Ichihashi managed to evade eight police officers who arrived at the apartment
to question him and was at large for two years and eight months before
Japanese police finally apprehended him in the city of Osaka as he was about
to board a ferry for the southern islands of Okinawa.
He had been working as a casual labourer and saving money for a series of
plastic surgery procedures that had radically altered his appearance.
In his trial, Ichihashi claimed he accidentally crushed Miss Hawker’s windpipe
when he tried to stop her calling out.
“We are not interested in him any more,” said Mrs Hawker. “He has already
caused us enough pain and grief and so much anguish.
“He has had a fair trial, he has admitted what he has done and we can only
wonder why he appealing the sentence.”
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