DEATH PENALTY IN 1976 BOMBING UPHELD
 
The supreme Court on Friday rejected the appeal 
from a man sentenced to death for the March 1976
bombing of the Hokkaido prefectural government
building in Sapporo that killed two and injured 95. 
 
The court upheld the death penalty for Katsuhisa
Omari, 44 of Tajimi, Gifu Prefecture, for deaths
resulting from a time bomb attack protesting the
appropriation of the northernmost main island of
Hokkaido from the Ainu ethnic "imperialists". 
 
"It is unavoidable that the first and second rulings
decided on the death penalty for the brutal crime 
that aimed at killing a large number of people
indiscriminately ," Presiding Judge Katsuya Onishi
said. 
 
Omori, who was arrested in August 1976 in 
connection with a separate bombing, has claimed 
that all charges against him are "fabrication." 
 
Omori is in prison in Sapporo, but issued a 
statement through supporters.
 
 "It is clear that is no proof of a crime and that I am
not guilty," he said in the statement. "The Supreme 
Court is protecting and supporting the police and 
prosecutors who have fabricated the evidence."
 
Omori's case has brought the number of people on
deathrow to 59, according to a private group
promoting a campaign punishment.
 
Omori was convicted largely because investigators 
detected explosive materials on vinyl sheet thrown
away by the defendant.
 
The bomb blast damaged the first floor of the 
Hokkaido government building shortly after 9 a.m. 
March 2, 1976.
 
A man claiming to be with the "East Asia
Anti-Japanese Armed Front" later called a local 
newspaper to claim responsibility for the bombing,
saying that a statement could be found in a coin
locker at a subway station. 
 
The statement called on the Japanese people to
destroy the "imperialist" rule over the Ainu, 
Okinawans,Koreans, Taiwanese, and all over the
Asians. 
 
The ruling brings to a close,  after 18 years, the
major trials of former radicals in politically motivated
bombings. 
 
Last February, the Supreme Court  upheld the death
penalty for former  United Red Army members,
Hiroko Nagata and Hiroshi Sakaguchi for the mass
execution of their comrades and for the killing of
policemen in a shootout between 1971 and 1972.
 
 
this article from  July 16, 1994  MAINICHI DAILY
NEWS (normal newspaper) 
 
 
 
BOMB FOUND NEAR COURT OFFICIAL'S HOME 
 
A suspected timing device was found in front of the 
home of an official of the Supreme Court in Sunday, 
police said.
 
A Family member of Yoshiyuki Iguchi, a secretary for
Supreme Court Justice Katsuya Onishi, made an 
emergency call to police upon discovering a 
cardboard box in front of the home in Chofu, Tokyo. 
 
Police rushed to the scene and found a suspected
time device and a bottle filled with something like 
gasoline inside the box.
 
The device did not explode and nobody was injured.
Last Friday, Justice Onishi rejected an appeal from 
an extremist sentenced to death for the March 
1976 bombing of the Hokkaido prefectural
government building in Sapporo Which killed two and
injures d 95. 
 
 
this article from 19 July, 1994, MAINICHI DAILY 
NEWS (normal newspaper) 
 
 
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