[Ppnews] Yu Kikumura extradited and arrested in Japan

[Political Prisoner News]

This is from mainstream press accounts!

Published Thursday, April 19, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20070419&Category=API&ArtNo=704192539&SectionCat=&Template=printart

Red Army Suspect Arrested in Tokyo

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press Writer


TOKYO

Police arrested a suspected former member of the 
defunct Japanese Red Army terror (sic) group at 
Tokyo's airport Thursday after his deportation 
from the U.S. following a prison term, officials said.

U.S. authorities arrested Yu Kikumura, 54, in 
April 1988. He was sentenced in 1991 to 21 years 
and 10 months in prison for driving with homemade 
bombs in his car in New Jersey.

He was paroled and deported earlier Thursday.

Japanese police arrested Kikumura immediately 
after he arrived Thursday at Narita International 
Airport, on suspicion that he had used a fake 
international driver's license to drive in the 
U.S. before his arrest, a Tokyo Metropolitan 
Police official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

Police suspect Kikumura was a member of the 
Japanese Red Army, a violent ultra-leftist group 
sympathetic to Palestinian causes.

The official said police plan to investigate 
Kikumura's suspected role in the group's alleged 
terrorist activities, including a 1972 attack on 
the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. The machine gun 
and grenade attack killed 24 people.

U.S. authorities had identified Kikumura as a 
former member of the group during his trial, the official said.

The Japanese Red Army was formed in 1971 and 
claimed responsibility for several international 
attacks, including the 1975 takeover of the U.S. consulate in Malaysia.

Group leader Fusako Shigenobu, arrested in 2000 
after more than 25 years on the run, has appealed 
a 20-year prison sentence for kidnapping and 
attempted murder in a 1974 attack on the French Embassy.

Another key member is serving a life sentence at 
a Japanese prison, with seven others still on the 
run, according to the National Police Agency.


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