Obituaries

Ex-Japan Red Army Prisoner Haruo Wako Dies at 75

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Former Japanese Red Army prisoner Haruo Wako

Jiji Press

12:44 JST, November 7, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Former Japanese Red Army member Haruo Wako, sentenced to life imprisonment over the militant communist group’s occupation of foreign embassies abroad in the 1970s, died while serving his sentence, sources have said. He was 75.

Wako, a native of Miyagi Prefecture, was detained in Lebanon after participating in the incidents. After being deported from Lebanon, he was arrested and indicted in Japan in 2000.

According to the final ruling, Wako and other members occupied the French Embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands, in September 1974.

In August 1975, he confined embassy staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and had detained Red Army members released.