[sumo] Sumo - Tokitsukaze - Progress - slowly

[Jack Gartin]

Here's an article from the Int'l Herald Trib on the current status of
Tokitaizan case.  Included in it's entirety for those whose company servors,
etc. block you from going out and reading it online.  For those who forget
where Aichi Pref is, it's the Pref where Nagoya is and the crime took place.

BEST
Tamagoyama


Police arrest trainer, three wrestlers in sumo death
The Associated Press
Published: February 7, 2008
     E-Mail Article<javascript:pop_me_up('/bin/email.php?id=9824569&code=0&type=Article','email','height=600,width=600,scrollbars=yes,resize=yes');>
  <http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/07/sports/AS-SPT-SUM-Sumo-Death.php#>

*TOKYO<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/07/sports/AS-SPT-SUM-Sumo-Death.php#>
:* Japanese police arrested a former sumo trainer Thursday over the death of
a 17-year-old wrestler after an alleged beating during training camp last
June, officials said.

Tokitsukaze, 57, whose real name is Junichi Yamamoto, and three wrestlers
are suspected of inflicting bodily injuries resulting in the death of
Tokitaizan, whose real name was Takashi Saito.

A spokesman for Aichi prefectural (state) police in central Japan said the
four were arrested but no other details could be released immediately. He
spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

Tokitsukaze allegedly hit Tokitaizan over the head with a beer bottle on
June 25, 2007, at a sumo training facility after the wrestler tried to flee.

The former trainer is suspected of ordering three senior wrestlers to
assault Tokitaizan. They then attacked the victim, including beating him
with a metal baseball bat.

Japan's sumo association fired the trainer in October.

An autopsy showed Saito's body had bruises and wounds that did not appear
consistent with those sustained in normal sumo training.

Tokitsukaze admitted he struck Saito on the head with a beer bottle the day
before he died, and forced him to train so hard that he could barely stand
on the day of his death.

The boy's father told reporters that his son fled from the training facility
twice — once in mid-June and again on the day before his death — but did not
say he had been bullied or assaulted.

<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/07/sports/AS-SPT-SUM-Sumo-Death.php#>
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