QAnon members in Japan sentenced for breaking into Covid vaccination centers
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Several members of a QAnon group in Japan were sentenced by a Tokyo court on Thursday for breaking into multiple Covid vaccination centers, according to CNN affiliate TV Asahi.
The five defendants were members of YamatoQ, an offshoot of the larger QAnon conspiracy theory that originated in the United States in 2017. In the years since, a number of fringe QAnon groups have emerged in Japan, with some local influencers garnering tens of thousands of followers.
Kuraoka Hiroyuki, the 44-year-old former leader of YamatoQ, was among those convicted of breaking into vaccination centers across Tokyo in March and April this year. On Thursday, the court ruled that since he had shown remorse by submitting documents to formally leave the group, his sentence – one and a half years’ imprisonment – would be suspended for three years, according to TV Asahi.
The other defendants were also given suspended sentences.
Content retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/asia/japan-qanon-yamatoq-sentenced-intl-hnk/index.html.
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