Red Army members in Beirut to end prison terms in March

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

BEIRUT, July 21 Kyodo

Five members of the Japanese Red Army jailed in Beirut will finish serving their prison terms on March 6 next year, a lawyer defending the five said Tuesday. A court has ordered the five -- Kozo Okamoto, Masao Adachi, Mariko Yamamoto, Kazuo Tohira and Haruo Wako -- to be deported after they finish serving their prison terms. They will continue to seek political asylum in Lebanon to fight against extradition to Japan, the lawyer said. The Red Army faction members were sentenced in July 1997 to three years in prison by a Beirut court for using forged passports. An appeal to a higher court was rejected in June 1998. All five members have been placed on an international wanted list by the Japanese authorities for various criminal charges. Okamoto, 51, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel for his role in the May 1972 attack at Tel Aviv's Lod airport, in which 26 people were killed. He was released after 13 years in prison in 1985 as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian guerrillas. Some Palestinian political groups still consider him a hero, and Palestinian residents in Lebanon are calling on the government not to extradite him to Japan.