'Pink Panther' member transported to Japan over 2007 Tokyo heist+

TOKYO, Aug. 14 Kyodo -
A Montenegrin member of the ''Pink Panther'' ring of thieves was transported to
Japan on Saturday after Japanese police arrested him in Spain over a June 2007
robbery of a jewelry shop in Tokyo.
Rifat Hadziahmetovic, 42, suspected of stealing a diamond tiara worth 200
million yen and other jewelry from the shop, has told the police he wishes to
exercise his right to remain silent and not incriminate himself, according to
the Metropolitan Police Department.
The suspect arrived at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture in the early
afternoon, surrounded by about 10 police investigators who led him to a police
vehicle. He was then taken to a police station in Tokyo under tight security.
Hadziahmetovic had been put on Interpol's wanted list by the Tokyo police over
the heist and was arrested in Cyprus in March 2009 for possessing a forged
Bulgarian passport. He was later transferred to Spain for his alleged
involvement in a separate robbery.
The Spanish government agreed to hand him over to Japan in July and the two
sides arranged for the extradition to take place this month, according to the
Metropolitan Police Department.
The Tokyo police sent investigators to Spain where the suspect was handed over
to them at an airport in Madrid. They then served an arrest warrant on
Hadziahmetovic on Friday at a police station inside the airport.
Hadziahmetovic told the Japanese investigators then that he did not want to go
to Japan and that he wanted to return to Montenegro, according to the police.
His arrest in Spain was a rare move as Japanese police normally serve a crime
suspect held overseas with an arrest warrant on a Japan-bound plane after it
enters international airspace or after the plane lands in Japan.
Hadziahmetovic and his alleged accomplice Radovan Jelusic, also a Montenegrin
national, are suspected of stealing the tiara and a necklace worth 84 million
yen from the Exelco Diamond store in the ritzy Ginza district after spraying
tear gas at clerks on June 14, 2007.
Jelusic, 40, also on Interpol's wanted list, was arrested in Italy in May.
The Pink Panthers ring, which has about 200 members, is known to have stolen
more than 45 billion yen worth of jewelry in more than 90 robberies in Europe,
the Middle East and Asia since 1999.
In Japan, the crime group is also thought to have stolen 3.5 billion yen worth
of gem products from another Ginza jewelry shop in 2004.
==Kyodo
2010-08-14 23:36:49