Court Convicts Japanese Man in Bombing Plot

NEWARK, N. J. —  A Japanese man prosecutors called an international terrorist was found guilty Tuesday of weapons charges and of transporting homemade bombs with intent to commit sabotage.

U.S. District Judge Alfred J. Lechner convicted Yu Kikumura in a non-jury trial after the 36-year-old defendant admitted to the charges under an agreement worked out with prosecutors.

“There is no contest and there is no alternative,” said Lechner, and he set sentencing for Jan. 23. Kikumura could face up to 100 years in prison.

Under the agreement, Kikumura retained his right to appeal pretrial rulings about the admissibility of evidence against him. If these rulings are overturned, his conviction could be thrown out.

U.S. Atty. Samuel A. Alito Jr. said outside the court that Kikumura had come to the United States “to kill people.”

“This man is an international terrorist who sneaked into the United States using a skillfully forged passport,” he said. “He’s someone who would have killed if he had not been stopped.”

The government has tied Kikumura to the terrorist Japanese Red Army and has said it is investigating his contacts in the United States.

Kikumura’s lawyers said in court Monday they could not defeat the evidence and would seek to have the charges thrown out on appeal. Their announcement came on the first day of trial and moments after Lechner rebuffed a motion to have the indictment dismissed because of the routine recording of Kikumura’s conversations with his attorneys in calls from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

Kikumura has been in the federal lockup since shortly after his arrest April 12 at a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop in Ridgefield.