NAGOYA, Japan, April 14 (UPI) -- Prosecutors in Japan Tuesday sought a 7-year prison sentence for a sumo stable master accused exhorting wrestlers in a fatal attack on a young competitor.
Tokitsukaze, whose real name is Junichi Yamamoto, is accused of ordering his wrestlers to assault 17-year-old Takashi Saito in a June 2007 incident at his training facility in Aichi Prefecture.
Tokitsukaze, 59, who allegedly hit Saito with a beer bottle, apologized in Nagoya District Court to Saito's relatives. He said the training session was meant to instill discipline but he denied giving any orders for the youth to be beaten.
However, three of his wrestlers were convicted of assaulting the teen wrestler with a metal bat in a separate trial in December and were given suspended prison terms.
