Japanese Hijacker Identified

A 22-year-old Osaka man, who is on the international wanted list in connection with the Lod Airport massacre in May last year, has been identified as the Japanese member of the four-man hijack team of the Japan Air Lines jumbo jet. This was reported by The Japan Times, an English-language newspaper in Tokyo.

The newspaper said that the man, Osamu Maruoka, was identified through his confession to the Libyan police authorities who are holding the four hijackers. The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) sent a telegram to the Japanese National Police Agency identifying Maruoka. The telegram also named the other hijackers as Mohammed Hassan, Karlos and Yahya Hassen Laghg. Karlos’ last name was undecipherable, the police agency said.

Japanese police on Aug. 8 searched the home of Maruoka’s parents in Osaka with search warrants charging him with violations of the anti-hijacking law, explosive control law and gun and sword laws.

The Japanese National Police Agency said Maruoka, who originally went to Athens, ostensibly to study fashion designing, underwent military training at a training center for Palestinian terrorists in a Beirut suburb together with Kozo Okamoto, 25, who is now serving a life sentence in Israel for his part in the Lod massacre. Maruoka did not take part in the Lod episode. Maruoka’s parents last heard from him in early June when he wrote them a letter from Bern, Switzerland.

The “Diversified Israel Experience,” is a new 7-month work, study program initiated this year by the American Zionist Youth Foundation. The first group of between 20-25 participants will leave Kennedy Airport Sept. 6. The first five months of this program will be spent working and learning Hebrew, on a kibbutz.