The life sentence handed down to Joji Obara, convicted of mutilating the body of British citizen Lucie Blackman and raping nine other women, has been finalized, it was learned Saturday.
The First Petty Bench of the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Ryuko Sakurai, rejected an objection by Obara, 58, in a decision dated Friday. The top court earlier this month rejected his appeal against a lower court ruling that convicted him over the high-profile case.
Upholding his lifetime imprisonment, the Tokyo High Court said in the December 2008 ruling that Obara kidnapped Blackman to molest her, and dismembered and abandoned her body in 2000, but he was acquitted of all charges related to her actual death due to insufficient evidence.
The high court said Obara had apparently attempted to rape Blackman, but it rejected prosecutors' argument that the defendant sedated her with drugs such as chloroform and actually raped her, noting that the cause of her death could not be specified.