Life sentence for former Japan Red Army guerrilla upheld

TOKYO, Oct. 28 Kyodo - The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday upheld a life sentence against former Japanese Red Army member Jun Nishikawa who was convicted of involvement in the 1977 hijacking of a Japan Airlines plane and the 1974 seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague.

Presiding Judge Fumihiro Abe turned down Nishikawa's appeal against a lower
court conviction, saying the defendant ''resorted to violence without respect
for other people's lives and physical safety, and committed antisocial acts to
try to realize his political beliefs.''
Nishikawa, 58, had pleaded not guilty, saying he was not aboard the hijacked
plane and that he had not conspired with other members of the group to attack
the French Embassy.
But the judge rejected Nishikawa's arguments, saying that ''the defendant,
armed with handguns and hand grenades, played a key role by forcibly seizing
the aircraft and helping one of the leading figures of the assault team.''
The three-judge panel also said that Nishikawa ''played an essential part'' in
the embassy attack by threatening hostages with handguns and guarding them.
According to court findings, Nishikawa conspired with other Japanese Red Army
members to seize the French Embassy in The Hague in September 1974, took
hostages for up to around 100 hours, and fired at policemen, wounding two of
them. Among the hostages was the French ambassador to the Netherlands at the
time.
In September 1977, Nishikawa, also in a conspiracy with other members, hijacked
the JAL plane over the Indian Ocean, forced it to land at Dhaka airport in
Bangladesh, demanded $6 million in ransom for passengers and crew members and
forced Japanese authorities to release six detainees, including members of the
Japanese Red Army.
In March 2007, the Tokyo District Court found Nishikawa guilty of violating the
anti-hijacking law and attempted murder, sentencing him to life imprisonment as
demanded by prosecutors.
In that decision, the lower court dismissed Nishikawa's claim that he was not
aboard the JAL flight and accepted the testimony of witnesses identifying him
as one of the hijackers.
Nishikawa was initially arrested and put on trial in 1975 for attempted murder
over the seizure of the French Embassy, but the trial was interrupted after he
was released from detention as part of a deal to win the release of hostages
being held by Japanese Red Army members at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur
that year.
Nishikawa was detained again in Bolivia in November 1997 and his trial resumed
in June 1998.
The Japanese Red Army, a left-wing extremist group, which was founded in 1971
in Palestine, staged a series of hijackings and indiscriminate attacks in
various parts of the world in the 1970s and 1980s.
Its former leader Fusako Shigenobu, 63, was arrested in November 2000 after
secretly returning to Japan. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the
Tokyo District Court in February 2006 for her involvement in the seizure of the
French Embassy as well as two counts of violating the passport law.
In 2001, Shigenobu issued a statement from prison declaring the disbanding of
the guerrilla group.