NAGANO: The Nagano District Court on Monday found a mountain guide guilty of professional negligence resulting in deaths and sentenced him to three years in prison, after four mountaineers in his care died on a mountain in Japan's Northern Alps in 2006. According to prosecutors, on Oct 7, 2006, the four climbers froze death amid high winds and snow on a route between a hot spring resort in Kurobe, Toyama Prefecture, and a hut on 2,932m Mt Shirouma. Prosecu- tors said guide Kazuhiro Tagami, 57, should have recognised the risk of the climbers dying from hypothermia in the severe weather, given that it was raining from the time the group began their climb and because the climbing route was a windswept ridge. KYoDO