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TOKYO : Japanese pop star Noriko Sakai pleaded guilty to illegal drugs charges on Monday and prosecutors have demanded a 18 month jail term for the 38-year-old.
The trial has sparked intense public interest and frenzied media coverage, attracting more than 6,000 people who queued up for just 20 gallery seats in the Tokyo District Court.
The singer-actress was arrested on August 8, a week after her surfer-husband Yuichi Takaso, 41, was taken into custody after police caught him with drugs in Tokyo's Shibuya entertainment district.
Sakai admitted in court that she started using drugs about four years ago, encouraged by Takaso, as she was “exhausted physically and mentally at that time” and had used them almost every month since summer 2008.
She added that she wants to quit stimulant drugs completely and divorce her husband. She also intends to start life afresh, possibly joining the nursing profession, local media reported.
Sakai faces up to 10 years in prison, though most first violations bring suspended sentences. A verdict and sentencing are scheduled for November 9.
Following her husband’s arrest, Sakai went on the run for about a week before turning herself in to police and admitting to habitual drug use.
She had spent more than a month in detention on charges of possessing and using illegal stimulants before being released on bail of five million yen (about US$55,000).
Takaso, in his own trial last week, has admitted to two of the three charges of drug use and possession.
He faces three counts of drugs use and possession for consumption of stimulants at a public park in Aoyama on August 2; possession of 0.817 grams of stimulants in his car in Shibuya on August 3, and possession of 0.097 grams of stimulants found in his home in Chiba on August 9.
- CNA/il
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