Osamu Maruoka, a former member of the notorious Japanese Red Army far-left extremist group, died in a prison hospital in Tokyo Sunday, his supporters said. Maruoka, 60, was serving a life sentence for taking part in a series of hijackings which the organisation committed in the 1970s in the name of worldwide revolution through violence.
He had a heart condition and died early Sunday at a medical prison in Hachijoji in Tokyo's western suburbs, according to the Relief Liaison Centre, a citizens group that defends activists' rights.
"The authorities are responsible for his death because he... sought the suspension of his sentence to be treated at an outside hospital," Yukio Yamanaka, secretary general of the group, told AFP.
In July 1973, Maruoka was one of five people, also including Palestinian guerrillas, who hijacked a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 while on a flight from Paris to Tokyo.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.