NAHA—Japanese police on March 25 formally closed their 32-year investigation into the deadly bombing of a Philippine Airlines flight, referring the case against an al-Qaida operative who is currently imprisoned to prosecutors.
The Okinawa prefectural police and the National Police Agency have named Ramzi Yousef, 57, as the suspect responsible for the attack on Dec. 11, 1994. He is currently serving a life sentence in the United States for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other plots including the Philippine Airlines’ incident.
The Iraqi national is accused of bringing a bomb aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434, which departed Manila around 6:45 a.m., assembling a timed explosive and leaving it under a seat before deplaning during a stopover in Cebu.
Approximately five hours later, as the flight continued toward Narita, the bomb detonated in the sky about 300 kilometers off the coast of Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture.
The blast killed a 24-year-old male passenger from Tokyo and injured 10 others, forcing the crippled aircraft to make an emergency landing at Naha Airport.
The bombing was a test run for “the Bojinka plot,” a larger, foiled conspiracy masterminded by Yousef to blow up multiple airliners over the Pacific.
After his arrest in Pakistan in February 1995, Yousef was convicted in a U.S. court for both the 1993 World Trade Center attack and the Bojinka plot, receiving a life sentence plus 240 years. He is currently serving the sentence in a U.S. federal prison.
Okinawan police said they identified Yousef as the perpetrator after reviewing U.S. court records and interviewing the flight’s crew.
Because his conviction is final in the United States, Japanese authorities will not seek his extradition and will conclude the investigation.
Prosecutors in Naha are expected to drop the case.
AloJapan.com