The Chiba District Court said on March 6^th that it will begin the trial under the lay judge system on June 4^th for a man indicted for murdering a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl last year.

Yasumasa Shibuya. (Source: Kyodo)

Yasumasa Shibuya, 46, has also been indicted on other charges including abandoning the body of Le Thi Nhat Linh, a third-grade elementary school pupil living in Matsudo, Chiba.

Shibuya was arrested on April 14^th, 2017 on suspicion of leaving the body of the Vietnamese girl. The warrant expired on May 5^th, 2017.

The same day, Japanese police served a new arrest warrant on the man, charging the suspect with murder and abandonment of the victim’s body, after tests results showed that DNA taken from Shibuya completely matched those of samples found on the victim’s body.

Le Thi Nhat Linh, had been lived with her Vietnamese parents and younger brother in Matsudo town, disappeared shortly after leaving her home on foot for her school on March 24^th, 2017. Her body was found two days later in a grass field in Abiko, Chiba. She is thought to have been choked to death, based on marks found on her neck.

Shibuya was the head of the parents' association at the elementary school in Matsudo which the victim was attending at the time of her disappearance. He lives about 300 meters away from the victim's home.

Shibuya has refused to speak about the case since his arrest in April, investigative sources said, with his lawyers declining to comment./.

VNF