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AKB48 attacker sentenced to six years in prison

By | Published on Wednesday 11 February 2015

Satoru Umeta

A man who attacked two members of Japanese pop group AKB48 and a security guard at a meet-and-greet event last May has been sentenced to six years in prison.

As previously reported, Satoru Umeta attacked both Rina Kawae and Anna Iriyama with a saw, and the security guard who came to the defence of the nineteen year old women, severely injuring all three.

At the beginning of his trial in November, Umeta admitted the charges against him. According to The Japan Times, prosecutors said that he had carried out the attack due to the “boring life he led every day, with no income or jobs, after being fired from a job as a security guard”.

Prosecutors added that, during a police interview, Umeda had said: “I felt that I was completely opposite the AKB members, who earned a lot of money, and wanted to vent my frustration at them”.

Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Takehiko Okada said: “What he did was a dangerous act that might have claimed the lives of the victims”.

Although briefly suspended in the wake of the attack, AKB48 have continued to make regular public appearances, albeit with increased security measures. Both Iriyama and Kawaei returned to the group, though have ceased to take part in meet-and-greets.



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