14 DAY TRIAL // Around one year ago, Japanese authorities arrested 30-year-old Tokyo resident Yusuke Katayama on suspicion of being behind the malware that hijacked computers to make threats on behalf of their owners. The man says he’s innocent.
Japanese police arrested several people for making the threats before learning that it was actually a piece of malware that had been posting the messages online from their devices.
At one point, the hacker even started playing games with the police, sending them on a wild-goose chase after a cat that had a memory card attached to its collar.
According to The Japan Times, the trial against Yusuke Katayama started on Wednesday. The suspect has pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him, arguing that the allegations are “complete nonsense.”
The man is unhappy that all his requests for bail have been ignored. He says that authorities have also banned anyone from visiting him since his arrest.
Investigators say that they’ve found evidence on Katayama’s work computer that links him to the threat-making malware. He had even looked up keywords such as “cat” and “Enoshima,” the island on which the cat was found.
Furthermore, video footage from cameras on the Enoshima Island shows the suspect playing with the cat in question. Prosecutors say they have a total of 673 pieces of evidence against Katayama.
However, the defense argues that it's all circumstantial and none of it clearly incriminates the suspect. Moreover, they claim that the real cybercriminal might have planted the malware to pin everything on the former IT worker.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Katayama has had run-ins with the law. Back in 2005, he was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison for making death threats online against the employees of a music label.