President Ohsho shot dead, prosecutors appeal against first trial verdict of acquittal - Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office

On the 29th, the Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office appealed to the Osaka High Court, dissatisfied with the Kyoto District Court's decision that acquitted Yukio Tanaka (60) of charges including murder in the 2013 shooting death of Takayuki Daito, then 72, who was the president of Ohsho Food Service, which operates the ``Gyoza no Ohsho'' brand.

``Disappointed by unexpected verdict'' family comments - President Osho shot dead

At the trial, the prosecution argued that the defendant was the perpetrator, based on the fact that the DNA type of saliva detected on two cigarette butts found near the crime scene matched that of the defendant, and requested a life sentence. The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying, ``I was never the culprit.''

In its ruling on the 16th, the district court noted that there is a possibility that the cigarette butts were left behind by a third party, stating that ``there is room for reasonable doubt that the perpetrator was the perpetrator.'' He rejected the prosecution's argument.

Tanaka is accused of colluding with an unnamed person to shoot Daito in the chest and stomach with a handgun in the parking lot in front of Ohsho's headquarters in Kyoto City's Yamashina Ward, killing her in the early morning hours of December 19, 2013.