A mob boss and six other gangsters pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of murdering a graduate student in March following an altercation, denying they had intended to kill the victim.
Takayuki Sato, 39, leader of a mob group affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest underworld syndicate, and the six others are on trial at the Kobe District Court on charges of abducting and murdering Kuniaki Uranaka, a 27-year-old graduate student at Kobe University of Mercantile Marine.
Sato initially did not enter a plea during his first trial session in June. He said he did not intend to kill Uranaka but admitted he and the other six assaulted him and left him lying unattended.
The seven are also accused of destroying evidence in connection with the abduction and slaying.