HYOGO (TR) – Prosecutors on Thursday requested a 13-year prison term for an American man who has admitted to killing a 27-year-old woman and dismembering her body last year, reports Kyodo News (Jan. 17).
At the Kobe District Court, the prosecution said that Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar, 27, acted “selfishly and ruthlessly” in the killing of the victim, a resident of Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture, and his attempts to cover up the crime.
According to the prosecution, Bayraktar deleted his account on the social-networking service that he used to meet the victim, whose name has been withheld from court proceedings at the request of her parents, to conceal evidence. “You also bought a saw and used your smartphone to look up how to dismember a body,” the prosecution added.
The defense suggested a five-year term would be suitable since the defendant has shown remorse for his crimes and assisted investigators in locating the body parts.
“I will be burdened with this crime until the day I die,” Bayraktar said. “I am so sorry.”
Earlier in the trial, Bayraktar admitted to charges of manslaughter and destruction and abandoning a corpse. He was not indicted for murder since it was not clear that he intended to kill the victim, according to the prosecution.
Killed the victim by strangulation
According to the indictment, Bayraktar, who is from Long Island, New York, killed the victim by strangulation at a residence in Osaka City’s Higashinari Ward on February 16, 2017.
The defendant arrived in Japan at the end of January of that year. He was residing in the country on a 90-day tourist visa, staying at various residences for short periods.
The victim’s mother contacted police on February 17 after her daughter’s company said that she failed to arrive at work. Police later revealed that security camera footage showed two persons, believed to be the victim and the defendant, entering the Higashinari residence early on February 16.
Two days later, Bayraktar was seen carrying a large bag out of the residence. During the investigation, police suspected that the defendant carried her body parts out of the unit before dumping them in various locations.
On February 24, officers found the victim’s head inside a suitcase in a residence in Osaka City’s Nishinari Ward. The following day, her torso, two arms and two legs were found in mountainous areas of Osaka and Kyoto prefectures.
The ruling in the case is expected to be made on January 22.
