Lawyers for the woman accused of killing four people and injuring 63 others with arsenic-laced curry at a Wakayama festival four years ago said in their closing arguments Wednesday the evidence against their client is purely circumstantial.
Masumi Hayashi, 41, has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyers rebuffed prosecutors' claims in their final arguments, made in June, that she committed "indiscriminate mass murder" and "a crime of unprecedented heinousness and seriousness."
The defense was expected to wrap up its closing arguments Wednesday evening, bringing an end to the trial after 94 sessions since May 1999.
The poisonings occurred at a summer fair held in the Sonobe district of the city of Wakayama on July 25, 1998. Hayashi's trial began in May 1999, and the Wakayama District Court may issue a ruling by the end of this year.