Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a former head of a parents' association over the 2017 murder of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo.

Yasumasa Shibuya, 47, committed a "cold-blooded, heinous and cruel" crime in abducting, sexually assaulting and strangling Le Thi Nhat Linh, the prosecutors said in a hearing at the Chiba District Court. Shibuya, a neighbor of the girl, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to the indictment, Shibuya bundled Linh into his car on the morning of March 24, 2017, in the city of Matsudo, before sexually assaulting and killing the girl in the vehicle and abandoning her body near a drainage ditch in Abiko, also in Chiba Prefecture.

"The defendant shows no sign of remorse. The suffering of Linh, who was killed in a foreign country, is beyond imagination," the prosecutors said.

The crime was committed out of "extreme selfishness" and Shibuya deserves particularly serious blame given his position at the time as the head of the parents' group, they said.

Shibuya has denied involvement in the girl's death, saying the prosecutors' claims are fictitious and fabricated. At Monday's hearing, Shibuya reiterated his position, saying, "I'm innocent and not guilty."

"I wish for a fair judgment for the sake of my two children, who are waiting for me and believe in me," he said.

The court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on Shibuya on July 6.

The focal point of the case is DNA evidence, with prosecutors saying blood and saliva matching the victim's DNA was found in Shibuya's vehicle and that Shibuya's DNA was also found from the victim's body.

But defense lawyers said the DNA samples may have been deliberately placed by investigators.

The prosecutors claimed the DNA test results were credible as blood was detected in a large area, indicating it was left during the crime.

Although Shibuya has said he was preparing to go fishing on the day when Linh went missing, the prosecutors said his statement is not trustworthy as it is contradicted by the accounts of other people.


(Linh's father Le Anh Hao)

Le Anh Hao, the 35-year-old father of Linh, requested the death penalty for Shibuya at a court hearing last week.

Linh, a third grader at the elementary school, was on her way to attend a ceremony marking the end of the academic year.