TOKYO (AP) — A man convicted of murder for killing and dismembering nine people in his apartment near Tokyo was executed Friday, Japan's Justice Ministry said.

Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer,” was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims.

He was hanged in high secrecy with nothing disclosed until the execution was carried out.

The execution was carried out amid growing calls to abolish the capital punishment since the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.