Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, 10 September: Prosecutors on Monday [10 September] sought a 15-year prison sentence for former Red Army Faction member Yoshimi Tanaka, who is on trial for the 1970 hijacking of a Japan Airlines (JAL) jet and other charges.
The defence is scheduled to deliver closing arguments on 29 October at the Tokyo District Court.
Tanaka, 53, and eight other members of the Red Army Faction hijacked the Boeing 727, with the ship name Yodogo, on 31 March 1970, after it left Tokyo en route to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, according to the indictment.
The hijackers eventually forced the plane to land at Pyongyang on 3 April, where they were granted political asylum. En route, the hijackers inflicted minor injuries on five of the 129 passengers and crew onboard, the indictment says.
On Monday, prosecutors said, "It was the first hijacking case in Japan and caused tremendous psychological and physical pain to many passengers and crew.
"Given that it was an extreme crime ignoring and jeopardizing the rule of law and the principle of democracy, a severe penalty should be sought to forestall a recurrence of similar act," the prosecutors said.
They said that Tanaka played an important role in the incident - widely known in Japan as the Yodogo incident - as he was issuing orders to other faction members.
At the first hearing held in December last year, Tanaka admitted to the charges of hijacking the plane and inflicting injuries on the five people, and offered his apologies, saying the group took innocent people hostage and that their actions were "inexcusable."
Tanaka is also accused of throwing firebombs into a Tokyo police station and into the grounds of a neighbouring junior high school in September and October 1969.
Tanaka was arrested in Cambodia in 1996 and eventually handed over to authorities in Thailand, who accused him of using counterfeit US banknotes at a Thai beach resort.
After being acquitted of the counterfeiting charges in 1999, he was extradited to Japan in June 2000.
Known as "Sekigunha" in Japanese, the Red Army Faction was formed in 1969 and advocated global revolution through armed struggle.
A splinter group, the Japanese Red Army, broke away two years later and gained international notoriety in the 1970s through a series of terrorist acts abroad.
Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0811 gmt 10 Sep 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
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Any info on this dude? The Red Army Faction's HQ was in Lebanon. Dude got married in N.K. and worked for NKIS. "...accused him of using counterfeit US banknotes..."--"Supernotes" affair.
Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo
Tokyo, 10 September: A group working for the release of Japanese allegedly kidnapped and held in North Korea on Monday [10 September] urged the police to question the wife of one of the hijackers of a Japanese plane in 1970 about the abductions when she returns to Japan shortly from North Korea.
Emiko Akagi, 46, is scheduled to return home on 18 September, according to a group supporting the hijackers. She is the wife of Shiro Akagi, 53, one of the hijackers of a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane that was forced to fly to North Korea.
The national council for the release of Japanese held in North Korea said it suspects that Akagi and other wives of the hijackers may have been involved in the 1983 disappearance in Europe of Keiko Arimoto, a 23-year-old Japanese university student.
The National Police Agency is planning to arrest Akagi on her return on suspected violation of the Passport Law.
The police placed her and four other hijackers' wives on the international wanted list in 1993 after they did not comply with a 1988 order to return their passports following allegations that they had contacted a North Korean agent when visiting Europe in the 1980s.
Akagi returned her passport in May this year for the purpose of obtaining travel documents to enable her return to Japan.
On Monday, members of the council, including Arimoto's parents, visited the police agency to request that a thorough investigation be conducted on Akagi.
On 31 March, 1970, nine members of the now-defunct Red Army Faction, known as Sekigunha in Japan, hijacked the JAL plane with 138 passengers and crew on board while it was en route from Tokyo to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, forcing it to fly to Pyongyang.
At the Tokyo District Court on Monday, prosecutors are to make their closing argument in the hijacking case against Yoshimi Tanaka, one of the Sekigunha members.
Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0410 gmt 10 Sep 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
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