Red Army Suspect Arrested in Tokyo

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

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.