Overview
- The Sapporo District Court on Friday handed the alleged ringleader, who was 18 at the time of the attack, a life prison term and gave a then-17 defendant a 30-year term.
- Prosecutors charged six people with robbery causing death for the October 2024 beating of university student Hase Tomoya in an Ebetsu park, and the court accepted the prosecution's account of the case.
- The indictment says the group beat Hase, took his cash card, forced him to reveal the PIN, and that he died from traumatic shock tied to those injuries.
- One co-defendant, Kawamura Haon, already received a 30-year sentence at first instance and has filed an appeal, keeping parts of the broader case active.
- The verdicts underline prosecutors' reading of motive as a relationship dispute and mean surviving defendants face further trials or appeals that could change final outcomes.