A woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murdering three male acquaintances in the course of swindling them in 2009 in a series of killings that drew huge public attention.
Kanae Kijima, 37, entered the not-guilty plea at the opening of her Saitama District Court lay judge trial, telling the three professional and six citizen judges, "I did not kill them."
But she pleaded guilty to fraud charges for swindling money from two of the victims, whom she met via spouse-hunting websites and had, according to earlier reports, promised to marry them.
Police first arrested Kijima in September 2009 on suspicion of swindling money from a man in his 50s in Nagano Prefecture. Investigators eventually served her with another eight warrants. (Japan Times)
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