A Thai criminal court ruled Thursday that Thailand should extradite a man wanted by Japan for the 1970 hijacking of a Japan Airlines plane by Sept. 10 or set him free.
Yoshimi Tanaka, 51, a former member of the radical leftist group Red Army Faction, told the court on May 16 that he would like to drop his fight against extradition and return to Japan -- for the first time in 30 years -- to face terrorism charges as soon as possible.
Tanaka's statement brought his nine-month struggle to an end. He had been fighting extradition since August last year, claiming Japan's charges against him are politically motivated.
The Thai court said Tanaka is to be extradited in accordance with the 1929 Thai Extradition Law. The ruling indicated the court did not consider the charges against Tanaka to be political.