GUNMA (TR) – A court here on Thursday ordered a 49-year-old man, whose whereabouts are unknown, to pay compensation to the family of three persons he killed more than two decades ago, reports TBS News (Jan. 10).
At the Takasaki branch of the Maebashi District, presiding judge Akihiko Iwatsubo recognized that Hiroshi Kogure was behind the killings of Takeo Ishii, then 48, his wife and another relative and ordered him to pay 137 million yen as compensation for their “mental anguish.”
In January, 1998, Kogure disappeared after killing Ishii and his relatives at their residence in what is today Takasaki City. Police concluded that Kogure was behind the killing after listening to eyewitness testimony.
The statute of limitations for seeking reparations in such a case is 20 years. Prior to the expiration, the family sent a claim to the last known address of Kogure, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun (Jan. 11).
The lawyer of the family acknowledged that getting Kogure to pay is difficult. “The bereaved family filed suit in an effort to get the suspect to take some kind of legal liability,” the lawyer said.
