THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
August 26, 2023 at 13:14 JST
Runa Tamura, center in back row, is driven to the Sapporo District Public Prosecutors Office on Aug 16. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
SAPPORO--A young woman and her parents arrested in connection with the discovery of a headless corpse at a Sapporo hotel will undergo psychiatric evaluations, investigative sources said.
The tests are aimed at determining their state of mind at the time of the incident in July.
Runa Tamura, 29, and her father, Osamu, 59, a doctor, and mother, Hiroko, 60, a part-time employee, were arrested over the death of a 62-year-old man found decapitated at a hotel in the city’s Susukino district. The victim was a company employee.
The Sapporo District Public Prosecutors Office filed a request with the Sapporo Summary Court for the psychiatric tests, which the court granted on Aug. 24.
The period of detention for the tests will be from Aug. 28 to late February 2024, according to the sources.
Defense lawyers for Osamu and Hiroko filed an appeal against the decision with the Sapporo District Court on Aug. 25, but it was rejected.
Prosecutors want to determine whether the suspects are mentally competent to be held criminally responsible for their actions based on the results of the psychiatric evaluations.
“The two did not conspire with Runa in any way,” the parents' lawyers stated Aug. 18. “They never imagined that Runa would commit such a crime.”
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