The former editor of the beloved Kodansha manga series Attack on Titan and Seven Deadly Sins, Jung Hyun Park, has formally been sentenced to 11 years in prison for murdering his wife. The latest verdict came after a High Court ruling which found his testimony exceedingly unreliable.
The formal Tokyo High Court verdict of his sentence was announced on July 18, 2024, after the Kodansha editor went on retrial for his wife’s murder that reportedly took place in August 2016. He was initially arrested in January 2017, with the prosecution seeking a 15-year sentence.
Ruling against Park, the court announced that he strangled his 38-year-old wife, Kanako, at their shared residence in Bunkyo City, Japan, on August 9, 2016.
Amid the previously ongoing trial, the prosecution asserted that Park had “strong intent” to kill his wife. However, the defence drew up a contradictory picture, claiming Kanako “committed suicide.” The Kodansha editor also maintained his innocence, denying allegations against his wife’s murder.
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As reported by The Tokyo Reporter, the ruling judge ultimately ruled out claims of suicide, labelling them “unrealistic” while branding Park’s crime as “malicious.”
Why was former Attack on Titan editor Jung Hyun Park on trial?
On the day of the 2016 tragedy, first responders came out to address a distress call as Park’s late wife was found lying face-up at the staircase base. She eventually succumbed to her fate an hour later at a local hospital. Following the incident, Park purported that his wife had “fell down the stairs.” However, the autopsy report revealed that she had died by suffocation due to pressure applied around the neck.
Park also twisted his narrative later, saying Kanako died as a result of hanging herself with his jacket on the railing of the stairs. As the court challenged his altered testimony, he claimed at the time that his wife had a knife and was acting violently. Japanese reports stated that Park fell back on shifting his stories about the incident because he could not tell his children that their mother had taken her own life.
The July 18 ruling further questions Park’s credibility as the judge said, “It is too sudden and unnatural that the wife lost consciousness and then moved around so much that she made a noise, and then committed suicide.”
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The Kodansha editor, who joined the publication in 1999, seeks to appeal the decision. Park’s mother added that her son got along with his wife and cared for his children. “It is too sudden and unnatural that the wife lost consciousness and then moved around so much that she made a noise, and then committed suicide.”
On the other hand, his attorney believes that Park’s testimony circled unreliability, which ultimately resulted in the 11-year sentence, not the evidence of murder.
The former AOT editor has been tried twice before.
