A Japanese court on Friday sentenced to death a 52-year-old man for murdering seven relatives and neighbours in what the judge called a crime of extraordinary brutality.
The Kobe District Court ruled that Yasutaka Fujishiro should face the gallows for using a hammer and a knife to kill his 80-year-old aunt, two cousins and four others in August 2004.
"The crime was based on strong intention to commit murder and the brutality was extraordinary," said chief judge Makoto Okada, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Fujishiro was driven by a long-standing grudge against his relatives and neighbours when he sneaked into the house of his aunt in a small western city of Kakogawa before dawn.
He killed her and her two sons and seriously wounded the wife of one of the sons. He then went to another house in the neighbourhood, where he killed the family of four and set fire to the place.
His defence counsel had argued he was not mentally fit to stand trial but the judge dismissed the claim.
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