DNA test confirms dying construction worker one of Japan’s most wanted fugitives

Kirishima has been using the name Hiro Uchida for many years.

DNA tests have confirmed that a 70-year-old man claiming to be one of Japan’s most wanted fugitives was telling the truth.according to British Broadcasting CorporationKirishima made this admission on his deathbed at the hospital last month. “I want to meet death with my real name,” he told police. Now, a month later, officials have confirmed that the 70-year-old is indeed Kirishima, a member of a militant group behind several deadly bombings in the 1970s. He has been wanted for nearly 50 years.

It’s unclear how Kirishima was able to get away with murder for so many years. In 1975, he was suspected of helping plant a homemade bomb that blew up part of a building in Tokyo’s Ginza district. exit the report said. There were no casualties. At the time, he belonged to the East Asia Anti-Japanese Armed Front, a radical left-wing group believed to be behind a number of bombings against companies in Tokyo in the 1970s, including one against a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries building that killed eight people and more. Many people died. More than 160 people were injured.

The 70-year-old is believed to have been involved in four other ground attacks. Two other members of the group were sentenced to death for their role in the attack. He is believed to be the only member of the group who was never caught by police.

Kirishima has been using the name Hiro Uchida for many years. He has reportedly lived in Fujisawa, a city on the western edge of Tokyo, for nearly 40 years. He told police he worked as a casual laborer before eventually working for a construction company. He is paid in cash and has no phone to help him keep a low profile. When he arrived at the hospital, he didn’t have a driver’s license or any health insurance.

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The story takes a sudden turn when the terminally ill man hospitalized near Tokyo admits on his deathbed that he is Kirishima. This prompted hospital staff to call the police, and through subsequent DNA analysis, “the person who died in the hospital on January 29 was confirmed to be Satoshi Kirishima himself,” a Tokyo police spokesman said. japan times.

When Mr. Kirishima was interviewed by police shortly before his death, he recounted details about his family and the extremist group that only he knew.

Police will now continue to investigate whether anyone helped Kirishima remain undetected.