was allegedly a member of the Japanese Red Army, an armed militant organization.

Arrest in The Netherlands

Police arrested Kikumura in Schiphol Airport in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

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 highway, controlled-access toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although ma ...

by a state trooper who thought he was acting suspiciously. He was found carrying three 18-inch (46-cm) mercury fulminate 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 ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

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 jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was Samuel Alito Supreme Court ...

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 Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

# 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 the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...

. 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 20th-century Japanese criminals Japanese prisoners and detainees People convicted of arms trafficking People from Miyazaki Prefecture Inmates of ADX Florence Japanese people imprisoned in the United States Prisoners and detainees of Japan Japanese Red Army Japanese male criminals {{japan-crime-stub