Ex-Japanese Red Army member sues to get prison sentence suspended+

TOKYO, June 30 Kyodo -
A former Japanese Red Army member convicted of the 1970s hijackings of Japan
Airlines planes filed a suit on Wednesday seeking to have his life sentence
suspended on the grounds that his prison is not equipped to deal with his
failing health.
In the suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, Osamu Maruoka, 59, who is
serving a life term at a prison in Miyagi Prefecture, is also seeking 10
million yen in consolation money.
Maruoka first experienced heart problems in 1996, and his condition worsened
after his sentence was finalized by the Supreme Court in March 2000, according
to the lawsuit. He was later diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy.
He filed complaints with the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office on five
occasions seeking to get his sentence suspended, only to have his pleas turned
down each time, according to the suit.
Maruoka argues that he is at the end stage of his disease, but that his prison
is unable to cope with a sudden change in his condition because it does not
have a cardiovascular doctor or artificial life-support equipment.
It also takes a doctor on night shift about an hour and a half to arrive at the
institution, according to his suit.
Maruoka conspired with four Palestinian guerrillas in hijacking a JAL plane
over Amsterdam in 1973. The plane was forced to land in Dubai in the United
Arab Emirates.
He also hijacked a JAL jumbo jet over India with four colleagues and forced it
to land at Dhaka airport in Bangladesh in 1977.
He was arrested in Tokyo in 1987 and was given a life sentence in a December
1993 Tokyo District Court ruling.
==Kyodo
2010-06-30 20:25:35


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