1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague

Japanese terrorists hold the French embassy in The Hague. A helmed politieman at the entrance of the Franch Embassy, September 15, 1974.

On September 13, 1974, three members of the Japanese Red Army stormed the French Embassy in The Hague, allegedly on Fusaku Shigenobu's orders. The ambassador and ten other people were taken hostage and a Dutch policewoman, Hanke Remmerswaal, was shot in the back, puncturing a lung. After lengthy negotiatons, the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of a jailed Red Army member (Yatsuka Furuya), $300,000 and the use of a plane. The plane flew the hostage-takers first to Aden, South Yemen, where they were not accepted and then to Syria. Syria did not consider hostage taking for money revolutionary, and forced them to give up their ransom.

Two of the three members who allegedly attacked the embassy, Haruo Wako and Jun Nishikawa have been detained and extradited to Japan. They are now on trial and have said Shigenobu was involved in the Hague attack.

The other member, Junzo Okudaira is still at large.

In popular culture

This event was featured in the 2010 biopic miniseries Carlos about the terrorist Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez).

References

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