Fusako Shigenobu, 76, who co-founded the terrorist group Japanese Red Army and released from prison after serving a 20-year sentence on Saturday, apologized for hurting innocent people.
“I have hurt innocent people I did not know by putting our struggles first. Although those were different times, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize deeply,” Shigenobu said according to AP.
Her once-feared group attempted to cause a global socialist revolution through high-profile terror acts.
The Red Army is believed to have perpetrated a 1972 machine-gun and grenade attack on Ben Gurion International Airport that killed 28 people, including two terrorists, and injured dozens more.
Incarceration
Shigenobu eventually served time in prison for a 1974 attack on the French embassy in The Hague, in which the ambassador, as well as a number of other people, were taken hostage by three Red Army militants for three days. The standoff concluded after France agreed to free a Red Army militant from prison, with the group flying to Syria after.
Although Shigenobu did not take an active part in either of the attacks herself, a Japanese court found in 2006 that she had helped coordinate it, sentencing her to 20 years for her role.
It's half a century ago... but we caused damage to innocent people who were strangers to us by prioritizing our battle, such as by hostage-taking.
Fusako Shigenobu
"It's half a century ago... but we caused damage to innocent people who were strangers to us by prioritizing our battle, such as by hostage-taking," she said, according to news agency AFP.
Five years before her incarceration, while under arrest awaiting trial, Shigenobu disbanded the Red Army, saying she would seek new fights within the law.