TOKYO - A COURT sentenced a Japanese woman to 15 years in prison for beating her husband to death, sawing up his body and dumping the parts across Tokyo in retaliation for domestic violence.

The Tokyo District Court on Monday ruled Kaori Mihashi, 33, had murdered her husband, Mr Yusuke Mihashi, a 30-year-old employee of a foreign-affiliated brokerage firm, by clubbing him in the head with a wine bottle while he was sleeping.

She then sawed his body into five pieces, the court said.

The court rejected testimony by psychiatrists that she had become mentally ill from the effects of her husband's violence, saying that she was mentally fit enough to attempt to cover up the crime.

The prosecution had sought 20 years in prison.

The crime emerged after passers-by found the man's unclothed torso and the lower half of his body in different public places in central Tokyo in December 2006.

She was arrested a month later. Based on her testimony, the police located Mr Mihashi's head in a Tokyo park.

The couple had been married for three and a half years.

The Tokyo Shimbun reported she had earlier told the court she 'dreaded' her husband as even trivial matters could trigger his violence.

Her husband suspected she was having an affair and would sniff her from head to toe when she returned home, the newspaper quoted her as saying.

He made her snap pictures of her surroundings with her cellphone and send them to him when she went outside, it said. She would also let her husband hear the sound of her hair dryer when she was at a sports gym and submit receipts from restaurants she visited, according to the newspaper. -- AFP