was allegedly a member of the

Japanese Red Army The was a militant communist organization active from 1971 to 2001. It was designated a terrorist organization by Japan and the United States. The JRA was founded by Fusako Shigenobu and Tsuyoshi Okudaira in February 1971 and was most active i ...

, an armed militant organization.

Arrest in The Netherlands

Police arrested Kikumura in

Schiphol Airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 1986 when they found him carrying a bomb in his luggage. After spending four months in prison, a judge ruled the search of his luggage was illegal and he was deported to Japan.

Arrest in the United States

Kikumura was arrested on April 12, 1988, at a rest stop on the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not consi ...

by a state trooper who thought he was acting suspiciously. He was found carrying three 18-inch (46-cm)

mercury fulminate Mercury(II) fulminate, or Hg(CNO)2, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators. Mercury(II) cyanate, though its chemical formu ...

pipe bombs hidden in

fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

s containing roofing-nail shrapnel. Prosecutors believe that Kikumura had planned to bomb a US Navy recruitment office in the Veteran's Administration building on 34th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on April 14, the anniversary of the U.S. raid on Libya.

Imprisonment

Kikumura was indicted on several counts of interstate transportation of explosive devices and passport violations. After a bench trial on stipulated facts, Kikumura was convicted on November 29, 1988, to serve 30 years in prison. Then U.S. attorney

Samuel Alito Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. ( ; born April 1, 1950) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served ...

represented the prosecution. In 1991, his sentence was reduced to 21 years and 10 months.

Release

Kikumura,

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

# 09008-050, was released on April 18, 2007.Yu Kikumura
."

. Retrieved on January 6, 2010. He had served a sentence of 221 months (slightly more than 18 years) at Florence ADMAX USP. Upon Kikumura's release he was sent back to Japan via

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...

. Upon arrival in Japan he was immediately arrested on charges of falsifying official documents. He was released in October 2007.

References

External links

Kikumura v. Hurley, No. 99-1284, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
2001 Case filed by Kikumura against Warden John Hurley for denying visitation rights by a Methodist minister.

2006 Case filed by Kikumura against Anthony Osagie, a physician's assistant at the prison infirmary, and other officers for a delay in treating his medical emergency. URL accessed 16 January 2007.

2006 ruling on release date. 1947 births Living people Japanese criminals Japanese prisoners and detainees People convicted of arms trafficking People from Miyazaki Prefecture Inmates of ADX Florence Prisoners and detainees of Japan Japanese Red Army {{japan-crime-stub