A 20-year prison sentence for a former militant over a series of bombings in the 1970s became effective earlier this month after the woman dropped her appeal with the Supreme Court, one of her lawyers said Monday.

Yukiko Ekita, 53, decided to drop her appeal of a high court ruling after judging that her sentence would not be reduced even if the appeal made it to the top court, according to the lawyer.

The appeal was dropped Aug. 5 and the sentence became final nearly 30 years after the bombings, which targeted large companies.

Another factor in dropping the appeal was that arguments were limited to questions over violations of the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents, which the woman's lawyers thought were unlikely to change the course of deliberations at the top court.

The Tokyo High Court on May 11 upheld a 2002 ruling by the Tokyo District Court that found Ekita guilty of attempted murder and violating the explosives law in the series of bombings during 1974 and 1975.

According to the rulings, Ekita and other members of the militant group set off time bombs at five buildings belonging to large companies, including Mitsui & Co. and Taisei Corp., injuring 20 people.

Ekita was a member of Daichi no Kiba (Fang of the Earth), one of three divisions of a militant group called the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front.

Her trial began in 1975 but was suspended when she was released from detention in 1977 in an extralegal measure. Ekita was arrested in 1995 in Romania on suspicion of passport forgery, and her trial resumed on her return to Japan after 18 years.