The Yokohama District Court sentenced two men to 10-year prison terms Thursday for kidnapping an elementary school boy last April in Yokohama and holding him for ransom.
According to the court, dry-cleaner Giichi Horigome, 56, and former taxi driver Yuichi Mizutani, 38, conspired to kidnap 7-year-old Toru Akiyama on his way home from school in Hodogaya Ward on April 20.
They confined the boy in an apartment in Kanagawa Ward until early on the morning of April 25 and demanded his parents pay 30 million yen in ransom. The boy's father deposited 7.92 million yen in a bank account, of which the defendants withdrew 2.96 million yen at automatic teller machines, it said.
Both defendants pleaded guilty.
Public prosecutors had demanded the court sentence both to 13 years in prison.