OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court sentenced a 49-year-old former hospital employee Wednesday to a suspended one-year prison term for harboring Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group, before her arrest in November.
The court found Mamoru Yoshida, 49, of Kyoto's Sakyo Ward, guilty of hiding Shigenobu in a hotel in the city of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture in March 1999, by saying she was his wife.
Shigenobu, who has since been indicted on five charges, including attempted murder, was arrested after decades on the run.
In handing down Wednesday's sentence, which was suspended for four years, Judge Takeshi Uegaki said, "The defendant's actions in having Shigenobu pose as his wife were malicious," but added that the sentence should be suspended because the defendant has shown repentance and fully owned up to the charges brought against him during his trial.
According to the court, Yoshida hid Shigenobu by booking a hotel room in Onomichi and letting her stay there for three days from March 25 to 27 in 1999, despite knowing she was on an international wanted list for her alleged masterminding of the seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague by members of the Japanese Red Army in 1974.
Shigenobu was arrested Nov. 8 after emerging from an Osaka Prefecture hotel.