© Kyoto Animation
The legal team of Shinji Aoba, who was convicted in the arson fire that killed 36 people and wounded 32 others at Kyoto Animation, asked the Osaka High Court to nullify Aoba’s withdrawal of his appeal against his death sentence on January 30. Aoba himself withdrew the appeal two days earlier on January 28.
When a suspect withdraws their appeal, the court can finalize its sentence and ends the trial. However, The Mainichi Shimbun paper reports that it is not unprecedented in the Japanese legal system for courts to nullify withdrawals of appeal if the defendants “seemed unable to protect their rights due to the shock of a death sentence.”
The Kyoto District Court handed down a guilty verdict to Aoba on January 25, 2024. The defense representing Aoba filed an appeal to the ruling the following day.
The prosecutors for the case announced their intent to seek the death penalty for Aoba in December 2023, while the defense’s main argument focused on a reduced sentence or acquittal, arguing that Aoba was not in a sound mental state during his attack. One of the trials focused on hearing arguments on this matter, but the judge deemed Aoba criminally liable.
The Kyoto District Court started the main trial for the arson murder case in September 2023, with pre-trial proceedings starting in May 2023. The court had 32 total hearings.
On July 18, 2019, a devastating fire broke out at Kyoto Animation‘s Studio 1 building. A total of 70 people were inside the building at the time. In addition to the victims inside the building, a man in his 40s on his way to work in the area suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation.
Kyoto Prefectural Police apprehended the then 41-year-old Aoba (now 46), who used gasoline to start the fire. Aoba bought 40 liters (about 11 gallons) of gasoline in two canisters and used a cart to transport the gasoline to Kyoto Animation‘s Studio 1 building. Japanese prosecutors formally indicted him in December 2020. Aoba himself had extensive burns all over his body from the fire.
Demolition work on Kyoto Animation‘s Studio 1 building concluded in April 2020. The studio started recruiting again in July 2020.
A documentary featuring Dr. Takahiro Ueda, the doctor responsible for caring for Aoba, aired in September 2023 in Japan, four days before the trial started.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun (Ryoko Kijima) (English version) via Otaku USA Magazine
