India, Nov. 11 -- A 50-year-old woman admitted in a Japanese court to threatening her 42-year-old female roommate and forcing her to sew her own lips shut with a needle and thread. The woman, identified as Masae Sakurai, admitted to the charges during the first hearing of her trial at the Shimotsuma branch of the Mito District Court in Ibaraki prefecture, near Tokyo, on November 11, The Straits Times reported.

Sakurai had denied the allegations when she was arrested earlier this year in June, but admitted the charges during Wednesday's hearing. The prosecutors said in their opening statement that the victim had skipped meals after Sakurai told her that "those who do not work shall not eat". However, the victim allegedly angered Sakurai b...