A Japanese court on July 6 sentenced Yasumasa Shibuya to life in prison over the 2017 murder of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl in Chiba prefecture, according to the Kyodo news agency. 

Yasumasa Shibuya (Source: Kyodo)

While Shibuya has denied involvement in the death of Le Thi Nhat Linh, prosecutors had sought the death penalty for the 47-year-old neighbour. Linh's father Le Anh Hao had also requested the death penalty for Shibuya. 

The third-grade student at Mutsumi Daini Elementary School in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, went missing on March 24 last year and was found dead near a drainage ditch in the city of Abiko two days later.

Shibuya, the former head of a parents' group at Linh’s elementary school, was arrested on April 14 and later indicted on suspicion of abducting Linh by his vehicle, and sexually assaulting and strangling her before abandoning her body.-VNA