OSAKA — The Osaka Bar Association said Monday it will dispatch two new lawyers to see Mamoru Takuma, the suspected killer of eight Osaka schoolchildren who dismissed his lawyers last week.
The bar association said it cannot rule out the possibility that police pressured Takuma in some way to dismiss his defense team.
"We don't understand why he suddenly dismissed them, since they said they had built trust with the suspect through daily meetings," Takeo Mizuno, president of the bar association, said. "If the investigative side pressured him to do so, it is an infringement of his right to a defense and would be very regrettable."