Fusako Shigenobu, the founder of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group who was arrested Nov. 9, told a court Thursday that she expected to be arrested after returning to Japan but had hoped to remain free until spring.
"I would have been ready to be arrested by next spring when the cherry blossoms fall," Shigenobu told the Tokyo District Court during an open session held at the request of her lawyers to hear the reasons for her detention. The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates a court must hold an open session to give the reasons for any detention at the request of defense lawyers.
Shigenobu, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague in 1974, said she will reveal her role in the affair.
Her lawyers, however, demanded prosecutors drop the charges because the accounts of people connected with the case have changed.
The guerrilla leader gave her reason for returning to Japan: "I wanted to create a situation in which I could fight under my real name." She said she wants to improve Japan and the world, even from behind bars.
Asked her occupation, she said, "As a way of living, I am a revolutionary and soldier of the Japanese Red Army, and I am a citizen as well."
After 30 years on the run, Shigenobu was arrested on suspicion of conspiring with three comrades to confine the ambassador and 10 other staffers at the French Embassy in The Hague, as well as for attempted murder during the incident, in which two policemen were shot.