<figure id="attachment_261380" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-261380" style="width: 247px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e4e58807"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/08/jpp038975523.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-261380" class="wp-caption-text">Nomura was sentenced to death at the first trial. He dismissed his entire defense team (Image: Asahi Shimbun / Jiji Press)</figcaption></figure>
 I was asking for a fair trial,&#8221; he said. Is there such a trial? &#8230;&#8230;. Anta, you will regret this for the rest of your life!&#8221;
 The defendant said to the presiding judge after he was sentenced to death.
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 The shocking verdict was handed down by the Fukuoka District Court one year ago in August. Judge Tsutomu Adachi sentenced Satoru Nomura, 75, the top president of the Kudo-kai, a designated dangerous crime syndicate, to death as requested, and Fumio Taue, 66, the number two chairman, to life imprisonment for murder and other crimes. Nomura, who had been calmly listening to the presiding judge&#8217;s remarks, changed his expression when the main sentence was announced. He stood up from the long chair near the witness stand and threatened the presiding judge as described above.
 The arrests were triggered by &#8220;Operation Summit,&#8221; a campaign launched by the Fukuoka Prefectural Police in September 2002 to arrest all Kudo-kai leaders at once, and the involvement of top Kudo-kai officials in four heinous incidents, including the February 1998 shooting death of a former fishing union head and the stabbing of a dentist, was confirmed. A 4,000-strong team was deployed to investigate and arrest Nomura and the other defendants. The trial began in October 2007.
<h2> It is better to know nothing.</h2>
 The Kudo-kai is a feared group in Kitakyushu City. A resident of Kitakyushu City said, &#8220;Kudo-kai-related injuries have been reported.
 I once asked a victim of a Kudo-kai-related injury what had happened. He tapped me on the shoulder and said, &#8216;It&#8217;s for your own good. He tapped me on the shoulder and said, &#8220;It&#8217;s for your own good. It&#8217;s better for you not to know anything. Your parents and siblings are in your hometown.
 If a problem arises, the Kudo-kai will sometimes touch ordinary people. Once, a bar in Kitakyushu City put a sign on its front door that said, &#8216;No gangs allowed. After a while, the bar was seen to be messed up and destroyed with firearms. It is said that Kudo-kai warehouses store weapons that would surprise even the Self-Defense Forces, such as rocket launchers for anti-tank use.&#8221;
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 Let us return to the trial of the top Kudo-kai officials. Nomura was dissatisfied with the verdict and immediately appealed. However, the trial has dragged on. Not even a date has been set for the appeal hearing.
 Nomura was confident of his innocence. There was no clear evidence to support his involvement in the case as the perpetrator. The defense lawyers had explained to him that he would be acquitted.
 However, when the case was opened, Nomura was sentenced to death. Nomura&#8217;s expectations were disappointed, and in July of this year, just before the deadline for filing a notice of intent to appeal, he dismissed all 10 members of his defense team. Thanks to this, the schedule was blanked out. Nomura is said to be in contact with an astute lawyer who has handled many major cases. It is expected that he will form a new defense team and plead not guilty at the appeal hearing. It is likely that they intend to stall the verdict. The trial is expected to be considerably prolonged.
 The final judgment against the head of the Kudo-kai is being postponed. When will the citizens of Kitakyushu be able to sleep soundly?

 Asahi Shimbun / Jiji Press

 One year has passed since Satoru Nomura, the head of the Kudo-kai gang, was sentenced to death in the first trial. Nomura appealed his sentence, but not even a date has been set for the second trial. Why is the trial dragging on so long? This article introduces the special circumstances of the gang that are shaking Kitakyushu.

You will regret it!” …One year after the death sentence, the Kudo Kai trial is protracted

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