The Saga District Court sentenced a 61-year-old yakuza to 24 years in prison Tuesday for killing a man at a hospital in Saga Prefecture in November after mistakenly identifying him as a rival gangster.

According to prosecutors' closing arguments, Fumio Imada, a yakuza affiliated with the Dojin-kai organized crime syndicate, fatally shot hospital patient Hiroshi Miyamoto, 34, at around 7:40 a.m. Nov. 8 after misidentifying him as a member of rival gang Seido-kai.

Miyamoto's widow, Atsuki, said she would ask prosecutors to appeal. "This ruling is unacceptable because I had thought even a life term would be too lenient," she said.

The shooting, which took place just as a turf war between the Dojin-kai and Seido-kai was raging in northern Kyushu, sent shock waves throughout the country, which was trying to deal with a spate of other gun crimes.

"The defendant committed the crime with a shortsighted assumption and entangled a citizen in a gangland war," said the prosecutors, who had demanded life imprisonment.

Imada's lawyers, arguing that he admitted to all the allegations and prayed for Miyamoto's soul, sought a sentence with a fixed term.