A man sentenced to death for the murder of six people in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, by setting fire to a jewelry shop and stealing 140 million yen worth of jewels filed an appeal against the ruling with the Supreme Court on Thursday, his lawyers said.
On Wednesday, the Tokyo High Court upheld the death sentence for Kazuo Shinozawa, 52, for deliberately setting fire to the shop and killing six female employees on June 11, 2000, calling the crime "unusually heinous."
Shinozawa has maintained that he did not intend to commit arson or murder. He has said he lit a cigarette lighter only to scare the employees.
Shinozawa admitted to binding the employees with adhesive tape and pouring gasoline over them, but said the flame from the lighter accidentally triggered the explosion that killed them.