For one suspected murderer in Japan, it has been a case of being able to run but not being able to hide.<\/p>\n
Left-wing revolutionary Masaaki Osaka has been arrested and charged for murdering a police officer during Tokyo street protests more than 45 years ago.<\/p>\n
He allegedly set the officer on fire using a Molotov Cocktail petrol bomb.<\/p>\n
No other suspected criminal has spent longer evading arrest, Japanese media report. The country has no statute of limitations for murder.<\/p>\n
The 15-year time limit was abolished in 2010.<\/p>\n
Mr Osaka was arrested last month in a Hiroshima apartment belonging to the Chukaku-ha, or the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (JRCL). He is reported by police to have remained silent since being caught.<\/p>\n
The fugitive was initially accused of a separate offence – obstructing the police – before officers claim to have realised who he was.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, he was transported from Hiroshima to Tokyo for further questioning, local media reported.<\/p>\n
Police say they have confirmed his identity through DNA tests because fingerprints were unavailable at the time of the crime.<\/p>\n
They say Mr Osaka was able to remain on the run for so long because he is a former high-ranking member of the radical left-wing JRCL and was assisted by sympathetic party associates.<\/p>\n
The JRCL was established in the late 1950s and during the 1960s and 1970s earned a reputation for staging violent street protests.<\/p>\n
Mr Osaka is accused of killing the 21-year-old police officer during a left wing riot in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward in 1971. He is alleged to have assaulted him with a steel pipe before setting him alight.<\/p>\n
The IRCL was protesting – among other things – against the recognition by Japan of the US military presence in the country.<\/p>\n
The man alleged to be Mr Osaka’s accomplice in the 1971 attack was charged in 1972, but his case was suspended because of mental illness.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"