LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The Los Angeles Police Department is making arrangements to transfer Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese businessman arrested in Saipan on suspicion of murdering his wife in the early 1980s, to Los Angeles, investigation sources said Saturday. Miura, 60, who was acquitted in Japan of the fatal 1981 shooting of his then wife Kazumi in Los Angeles, was taken into custody Friday at Saipan airport upon his arrival from Narita airport near Tokyo.
The LAPD is arranging the transfer with the authorities in Saipan, a commonwealth territory of the United States, the sources said. Whether U.S. law enforcement authorities bring Miura to trial is being watched closely.
According to Japanese investigative authorities in Tokyo, U.S. investigators told them that the arrest was made on "fresh evidence."
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said staff at its Saipan office have asked local authorities for a meeting with Miura.
Miura was at the center of heavy media coverage through the 1980s after Kazumi was shot in the head in November 1981 and died about a year later. Miura himself also sustained serious injuries when Kazumi was shot.
In 1985, Japanese police arrested Miura, along with a former actress, on suspicion of attempted murder for insurance money in connection with an earlier assault on his wife in August of 1981.
In 1988, Miura and another man were arrested over her death in the November incident.
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Miura in 1994 to life in prison for murder, but the Tokyo High Court acquitted him of the murder charge four years later, and the decision was let stand by the Supreme Court in 2003.
In 1998, the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal against a sentence of six years in prison imposed on him for the attempted murder charge in the earlier assault case. Miura was released in January 2001.
