Police arrested a 48-year-old local assembly member Monday on suspicion of suffocating his wife to death in September last year at their home in Nagano Prefecture.
Daisuke Maruyama, a second-term member of the Nagano Prefectural Assembly who belongs to the prefectural chapter of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has denied allegations he murdered his 47-year-old wife, Nozomi, saying he was not at the scene of the crime when the attack is presumed to have occurred, according to an investigative source.
Maruyama is suspected of suffocating his wife and killing her at their home in the city of Shiojiri between around midnight on Sept. 28 and 6:45 a.m. the following day, according to the Nagano Prefectural Police Department.