Iraqi Suspect Arrested in 2004 Killing of Japanese
The Iraqi Interior Ministry says an Iraqi man has confessed to murdering Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese man taken hostage in Iraq and killed by an insurgent group in 2004.
Ministry officials have identified the suspect as Hussein Fahami, a resident of Baghdad. He is said to have told police that he and two others killed Mr Koda and left his body in Baghdad.
the suspect
"We demanded that Japan withdraw its troops, but it did not. So we killed the hostage."
The suspect reportedly belonged to a group with links to Al Qaeda.
In video footage obtained by NHK, the suspect says Mr Koda was transferred to his group from another. They held him in a house near a Sunni mosque.
Iraqi Interior Ministry official
"The suspect's statement matches up with what is shown in the web footage."
The Al Qaeda Organization of Holy War in Iraq said in a video posted on the Internet that it would kill Mr Koda unless Japan withdrew its Self-Defense Force units from Iraq. Four days later, Mr Koda's body was found in Baghdad.