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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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Nagasaki Mayor's Killer Confesses

Alleged gangster apologizes in court as trial opens

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(Newser) – The Japanese man accused of killing the mayor of Nagasaki last April has admitted to the crime, the BBC reports. "I apologize to Mayor Iccho Ito and his family from the bottom of my heart," Tetsuya Shiroo said today on the first day of his trial. An alleged gangster, Shiroo was apprehended immediately after shooting Ito last year as he campaigned for reelection.

"Every day, I pray that Mr. Ito rests in peace,” Shiroo said after acknowledging everything in the indictment was true. The trial will continue; at issue is whether the assassination, a rarity in Japan, was premeditated. Shiroo's defense team will argue that he meant only to threaten the mayor. Prosecutors maintain that he acted on a grudge against the city government.

A coffin containing the remain of Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito arrives at his residence in the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Ito was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday night, April 17, by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that the city refused to...
A coffin containing the remain of Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito arrives at his residence in the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Ito was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday...   (Associated Press)
This undated photo provided by Japan's Kyodo News shows Tetsuya Shiroo who shot and killed Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito in the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki Tuesday, April 17, 2007. Shiroo, a senior member of Japan's largest organized crime syndicate Yamaguchi-gumi, was wrestled to the ground by officers after the...
This undated photo provided by Japan's Kyodo News shows Tetsuya Shiroo who shot and killed Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito in the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki Tuesday, April 17, 2007. Shiroo, a senior...   (Associated Press)
Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito joins thousands of marchers in New York City, including survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War, to commemorate the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan and protest against the future use...
Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito joins thousands of marchers in New York City, including survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War,...   (Associated Press)
Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito guides Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia at the atomic bomb hypocenter in Nagasaki Peace Park in Nagasaki in this March 30, 2007 photo during the royal couple's trip to the southwestern Japanese city at the end of their week-long state visit to Japan....
Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito guides Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia at the atomic bomb hypocenter in Nagasaki Peace Park in Nagasaki in this March 30, 2007 photo during the royal couple's trip...   (Associated Press)
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Shiroo thought to have held a grudge against Ito
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