{"id":14217,"date":"2012-10-08T04:10:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T04:10:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-10-08T04:10:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T04:10:46","slug":"-Anime-director-accused-of-death-threat-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14217","title":{"rendered":"‘Anime’ director accused of death threat released"},"content":{"rendered":"

A well-known “anime” director charged with posting a message on the Osaka Municipal Government’s website threatening to “perpetrate mass murder” has been released amid suspicions that a third party may have remotely operated his PC to send it, police said yesterday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office released Masaki Kitamura, 42, on Sept. 21 after discovering that his personal computer had been infected with a virus that could have allowed others to control it remotely and send the message, the police said.<\/p>\n

Kitamura<\/strong>, who lives in Suita and worked as assistant director in the popular anime TV series “Mobile Suit Gundam 00,” had denied the charges.<\/p>\n

He was arrested on suspicion of accessing a service inquiry section of the municipal government’s website at around 9:45 a.m. July 29 and posting a message reading:<\/strong> “I will perpetrate mass murder in Otaroad (a shopping district in central Osaka) on Aug. 5.”<\/p>\n

Kitamura<\/strong> was charged with obstructing the work of municipal employees and the police, who put around 90 officers on alert. He was indicted in September.<\/p>\n

Despite the threat, no attack took place in Otaroad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Osaka Prefectural Police also suspected he might be implicated in a bomb threat sent via email to Japan Airlines Corp. on Aug. 1. The carrier immediately ordered a flight bound for New York to return to Tokyo, but no bomb was discovered onboard.<\/strong> Tokyo and Osaka police earlier investigated Kitamura’s possible links to the JAL incident.
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