MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Japan came under criticism after reports that another inmate was executed earlier in the day at a Fukuoka prison. The 45-year-old was hanged for committing murders in 2004 and 2011.
"The Japanese government cannot hide the fact that it is on the wrong side of history, the majority of the world’s states have turned away from the death penalty," Amnesty International’s Hiroka Shoji said in a statement.
He urged the nation’s Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda to act on calls from the UN and Japanese lawyers to end executions, which are conducted in secrecy. Convicts are usually given a few hours’ or no warning, and their families and lawyers are notified about the execution when it is already too late.
