Police served a fresh warrant Monday for a British animal rights activist suspected of stealing a laboratory dog from a Tokyo university.
The woman, who has already been indicted on other charges, allegedly took the dog after intruding at Juntendo University in Bunkyo Ward in April 2002.
The Metropolitan Police Department also arrested the leaders of two animal rights groups based in Japan and searched six locations in connection with the case, including the homes of the pair.
Dawn Maxine Hurst, 31, an activist with a British animal protection group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, is now on trial at the Osaka District Court.
In the case under trial, Hurst is suspected of intruding at three universities and stealing videotapes on animal experiments between July and August in 2001.
The three universities are Osaka University, Kansai Medical University and Juntendo University.
The activist group, which opposes animal testing and has targeted certain research organizations in Britain, is known for radical acts such as physically attacking staff of the organizations and planting car bombs.
The two other suspects were identified as Yukari Sugisaka, 41, the leader of a group called Help Animals, and Susumu Kawaguchi, 56, the representative director for the nonprofit organization Animal Rights Center.
A 34-year-old male activist was also allegedly involved in the incident at Juntendo University, but he is believed to have left Japan immediately after the theft, according to police. The dog was being used for experiments related to heart disease, police said.