In April last year, a passenger car lost control on a metropolitan highway in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, killing Mana Matsunaga (31 at the time) and Riko Matsunaga (3 at the time). The first trial against the former director of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Kozo Iizuka (89), who was accused, took place in the Tokyo District Court on the 8th. The accused apologized to the grieving family, including Mr. Takuya Matsunaga (34), but denied the charges and insisted that he was not guilty, saying: “I have never kept stepping on the gas because something went wrong with the car.”

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At the meeting, Mr. Matsunaga was disappointed by the innocence of Iizuka, who had met for the first time a year and a half after the accident. “I don’t want you to apologize if you insist on a car malfunction. If you are really sorry, you should plead guilty and be sentenced.”

Iizuka said that he didn’t look at him when he apologized at the beginning of the trial. Mr. Matsunaga said: “I met only once during the trial, but I was immediately distracted. I did not meet my eyes when I first apologized. First of all, I don’t want to be apologized, but I do apologize to everyone. . Are you there? “

Mr. Uehara shouted: “I speak as a person, even if I take my beloved daughter and grandson. I wanted to ask if your son and grandson had the same experience.” “When I saw Iizuka in court, I thought he had a human heart,” he said.

Masato Takahashi, who had many applicants for the victim participation system, responded to the Tokyo District Court’s response that the grieving family did not admit that there was a deceased in some of the courtrooms treated as courts. He criticized him for pushing the option of having a deceased person in his seat. Mr. Matsunaga’s mother said that he listened at the general hearing and Mr. Matsunaga said: “It is important that the grieving family wants to participate in the trial with the two who died. I will continue to inform the court.”

◆ Ikebukuro hit-and-run accident At around 12:25 pm on April 19, a passenger car lost control for about 150 meters, including two highway intersections at Higashi-Ikebukuro 4-chome, Toyoshima-ku, Tokyo. I ignored the red light and pulled into the intersection. Matsunaga’s mother and son were killed by bicycle, and nine men and women between the ages of 2 and 90, including former director Iizuka and his wife in the passenger seat, were seriously injured.