Japanese jailed for chopping up husband

Akiko Kitayama, 54, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, will serve a minimum 15 years for the 1999 murder of her 62-year-old husband. Ending a sensational three-week court case in Brisbane, the jury was out for seven hours before deciding the self-confessed alcoholic had slain the former kingpin of a Tokyo-based "yakuza" criminal gang.

The Kitayamas, who had been married for 21 years, put up a bond of 1 million Australian dollars (530,000 U.S. dollars) to gain permanent residency in Australia five years ago. The Bosch electric knife the court alleged Kitayama used to dismember her husband has not been found, but a warranty card and instruction manual found at the flat was produced as evidence in court. A chainsaw, which appeared unused, was also found at their beachfront Surfers Paradise apartment. A five-day search of the local garbage tip failed to find body parts in plastic bags believed to have been dumped there by unknowing council workers. The prosecution alleged that Kitayama, who stood to benefit from a large insurance policy, killed her husband so she would be free to join a male friend back home in Japan. Kitayama admitted she tried to strangle her husband just a month before the April 1999 murder but maintained her innocence even after her conviction.

The insurance policy was not paid out because there was no body to confirm the death and no legal finding on the whereabouts of the missing man. The defence argued that Kitayama's husband might have just left her and be living somewhere else with a different identity. Lawyers for Kitayama, who speaks no English at all, also argued that her husband's disappearance might be related to his former life as a gangland boss.

(dpa)