A 28-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for attempted murder and obstructing police in the line of duty, after the Osaka District Public Prosecutors’ Office decided earlier in the day not to charge him for the time being on accusations he held a 19-year-old girl against her will in his apartment and breaking the Swords and Firearms Control Law on July 22.

Police in Ibaraki City in north Osaka rushed to Naoya Iwata’s apartment on the night of July 22, following a call from his neighbor that she could hear a girl screaming for help. Three officers arrived at the scene and asked him where the girl was, but he told them he didn’t know anything about it and that he was watching a video. Police began searching his apartment and found a 19-year-old girl unconscious with her wrists bound together in a storage space about 60 cm wide and 50 cm deep, underneath the flooring.

Iwata is accused of then putting a sword to an officer's neck, and the other two officers drew their guns and asked him to put the sword down. Thirty minutes passed before five other officers stormed the room from the balcony and Iwata was arrested. One of the officers sustained a serious cut to his right leg in the incident, expected at the time to take up to two months to heal.

The girl was taken to a hospital where she recovered and received treatment for the bone fractures around her eye. Iwata told police that he had met her for the first time several hours earlier after becoming acquainted via a cell phone website.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutors’ Office determined on Wednesday not to charge Iwata as of yet for illegal confinement and violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law, and he became eligible for release given the maximum period of detention expired that day. Iwata was subsequently arrested for attempted murder and interfering with an officer in the line of duty. He has denied intending to kill the officer.

The District Prosecutor’s Office is expected to deal with all of the charges at the same time in the near future.

© News reports