The Tokyo High Court on Monday upheld a lower court-imposed indefinite prison term handed to a 20-year-old man for his role in the strangling of a 19-year-old male in Tochigi Prefecture in 1999.
The court rejected an appeal by the man against the ruling issued in June by the Utsunomiya District Court that he masterminded the murder of Masakazu Sudo on Dec. 2, 1999. The defendant and two others -- both 19 at the time -- strangled Sudo with a necktie in a forest in Tochigi Prefecture.
The defendant's identity was withheld as he was a minor at the time of the crime.