GIFU -- The wife of a gynecologist was slapped Monday with an 18-year
prison term for paying a hitman to kill her husband so she could collect 40
million yen in life insurance benefits taken out on him.
The Gifu District Court convicted Mieko Tanahashi, 66, of murder and
insurance fraud. Prosecutors demanded a 20-year prison term for her.
Tanahashi conspired with a relative, a gangster and three others to kill
her husband, 64-year-old Junichi, in 2001, according to the ruling.
One of the five accomplices shot the gynecologist in front of his home in
Gifu in late January 2001. The wife subsequently defrauded three life
insurers out of 40 million yen in benefits on life insurance policies taken
out on him, the court found.
Prosecutors charged that the woman asked the relative to kill her husband
and handed 21 million yen in cash to him in October 1999.
However, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the murder, saying that the
relative masterminded the crime and that she asked him on two occasions not
to kill her husband after she handed the money to him. (Mainichi Shimbun,
March 31, 2003)
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030331p2a00m0dm015001c.html
