A JAPANESE COURT has ruled that a 19-year-old American will face trial over the murder of DCU student Nicola Furlong as an adult – meaning he may face life imprisonment if convicted.

The American, a musician who has not been named, is charged with strangling 21-year-old Furlong in a hotel in Tokyo two months ago.

The suspect has not been named, as ordinarily people under the age of 21 are considered to be minors under Japanese law.

If he had been tried as a juvenile, he may only have faced a maximum jail term of five years.

The Wexford woman, an international business student in DCU, was studying at the Takasaki City University of Economics, for the third year of her degree.

She and a friend had travelled to central Tokyo to attend a concert by US rapper Nicki Minaj.

The pair missed their train home, and later met two Americans in the busy Shinjuku train station, with whom they travelled back to the Keio Plaza Hotel, where Furlong was found dead the following morning.

BBC News said the judges had reached their decision after considering victim impact statements from Furlong’s family, who travelled to Japan for the preliminary hearings, and police reports.

It is not known when the trial will begin, though RTÉ quoted a source within the Tokyo public prosecutor’s office who said it would probably be several months.