NAPLES, Italy UPI) -- A Naples court sentenced in absentia a notorious Japanese terrorist to life imprisonment Friday for the 1988 bombing of a U.S. servicemen's club which killed five people and injured 16.
Yunzo Okudaira, 43, known to international police as a leader of the Japanese Red Army terrorist organization, has been blamed for a series of attacks on U.S. and Israeli embassies and installations in Europe and Asia during the past 20 years.
The court acquitted Okudaira's sister-in-law Fusako Shigenobu, 47, the only other defendant in the week-long trial, on grounds of insufficient proof.
Both Japanese were tried in their absence. Investigators said they evidently fled Italy on a train that left Naples a few minutes after the car bomb exploded.
The car bomb exploded in the narrow street outside the American USO (United Services Organization) club near the waterfront while American servicemen, including sailors from 6th Fleet ships anchored in the Bay of Naples were holding a party.
