Tokyo, July 31 (EFE).- A court in Japan on Monday handed a 23-year prison sentence to a man who carried out a knife and fire attack on a Tokyo train that injured 13 people on Halloween night in 2021 wearing Batman’s Joker costume.

Kyota Hattori, 26, was convicted of attempted murder after stabbing and seriously injuring a 72-year-old man on the train as well as for arson for staring a fire inside the wagon, causing injuries to another 12 people.

Hattori decided to carry out the attack on Halloween believing that there would be many people on public transport and walked through the busy Shibuya district before boarding the train to Shinjuku station, one of the busiest in Tokyo.

During the trial, Hattori said he was shocked to learn that his ex-girlfriend got married just six months after breaking up with him and that he began to have suicidal thoughts, according to details revealed by Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Monday.

After his arrest, Hattori testified that he planned a crime in which he could kill many people with the aim of being sentenced to death.

The defense lawyers demanded a lower sentence of 12 years, claiming that when he threw the lighter to start a fire in the train car the passengers had moved away to safety and were out of danger.

Hattori was reportedly inspired by another multiple stabbing on a train perpetrated months earlier by another man, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison. EFE

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