Prosecutors demanded a 2 1/2-year prison term Wednesday for Japanese Red Army member Kazue Yoshimura, who is charged with trying to use a forged passport in Peru.
During hearings held before the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors asserted that Yoshimura attempted to use the forged passport to continue underground operations for the Red Army, and that there were no extenuating circumstances in her case. They said she had been backed by an international passport-forgery ring supporting the Red Army and that she has shown no remorse for her actions.
According to the indictment, Yoshimura, 50, presented Peruvian police authorities a passport forged in the name of Yoko Okuyama on May 25, 1996. She is also accused of filing with the Peruvian Immigration and Naturalization Bureau in Lima a bogus foreign resident registration paper identifying herself as a Filipino named Conny F. Perez, on May 21, 1993.
In past hearings, Yoshimura pleaded not guilty and cited the circumstances of her arrest in connection with the leftist occupation of the French Embassy in the Hague, the Netherlands, in 1974. Details of her arrest were not provided. Pointing out she was released with no action taken against her, Yoshimura's lawyers argued that prosecutors are not qualified to seek criminal action against her because they had placed her on an international wanted list for more than 20 years for an action for which they could not hold her liable.