THE Japanese man convicted of abducting British bar hostess Lucie Blackman and dismembering her body has exhausted his last legal procedure against his life sentence, according to reports.
A section of the Supreme Court rejected an objection which the defendant, Joji Obara, 58, filed after the top court turned down his appeal earlier this month, Kyodo News said on Saturday, citing a decision dated Friday.
Obara has no further avenues to pursue and the procedural move by the top court finalised his life sentence in the high-profile case.
Obara, a wealthy former property developer, was in 2008 sentenced to life in prison for raping nine women between 1992 and 2000, causing the death of one of them, and kidnapping Blackman, then 21, and dismembering her body.
But he did not face murder charges because of insufficient evidence.
Blackman vanished while she was working in bars in Tokyo’s Roppongi red-light district while trying to save money for a holiday in Australia.
Her dismembered body was found seven months later in a seaside cave on the city’s outskirts.
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