21 September 1999 :

On September 21, the Criminal Court in Bangkok indicated that Thailand is unlikely to extradite Yoshimi Tanaka, 51, a former member of the now-defunct Red Army faction within 1999. Tanaka was wanted in Japan as one of the suspects in the March 1970 hijacking to North Korea of a JAL jet. The Criminal Court ordered public prosecutors and Tanaka's lawyer to appear before it on October 26 and November 15 and 22. Thailand, a signatory to an international convention on human rights, should not extradite Tanaka because the convention prohibits the extradition of those convicted of crimes punishable by execution - and Tanaka could face a maximum penalty of execution. But a Foreign Ministry official said, "We are concerned with international co-operation on crime prevention. If we don't extradite a criminal who faces a severe penalty of execution, we will also not get any Thai criminals who have escaped abroad. We might also be blamed for providing refuge to criminals."