Japan executes 3 death row prisoners

(Vatican Radio) Japan has executed three death-row prisoners. It and the United States are some of the few nations in the industrialized world that retain the death penalty.
The three men were convicted murderers who had been on death row here in Japan for several years, hanged in the early hours local time.
Japan’s justice minister said he ordered the executions “after carefully considering” each case. He said the three murders had been performed for “very selfish reasons.”
One victim was a bar owner, killed for money, another was a seven-year-old child.
Within hours of the executions, a leading human-rights lobby group said it “strongly condemns” the move.
Lobbyists question Japan’s conviction rate: 99 percent of suspects who make it to court here are found guilty.
One hundred and thirty four people remain on death row in Japan: some known to have been held for decades and they usually are hanged with no warning.
These executions are the first under a new government sworn in in December.
In recent years, Japan has seemed on the verge of suspending the death penalty: in 2011 it carried out no executions. But they restarted last year. Listen to Alastair Wanklyn's report