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Japanese Court Orders Death Penalty in Anime Studio Arson


FILE - An aerial view shows firefighters battling fires at the site where a man started a fire after spraying a liquid at a three-story studio of Kyoto Animation Co. in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo, July 18, 2019. (Kyodo/via REUTERS).
FILE - An aerial view shows firefighters battling fires at the site where a man started a fire after spraying a liquid at a three-story studio of Kyoto Animation Co. in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo, July 18, 2019. (Kyodo/via REUTERS).

A Japanese court sentenced a man to death Thursday for the 2019 arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto that killed 36 people.

The Kyoto District Court ruled that Shinji Aoba was mentally competent at the time of the attack.

Aoba, now 45 years old, admitted setting the fire at the anime studio Kyoto Animation after spreading gasoline on the ground floor.

In addition to those killed, the attack also injured 32 people.

Aoba believed the studio had stolen ideas from a contest entry he submitted. The company denied those claims. He was also badly burned in the fire and appeared in court in a wheelchair.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters

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