It was shortly after NHK's "Kohaku Utagassen" ("Red and White Singing Competition") program had ended and just minutes before the new year when Makoto Hirata appeared in front of Marunouchi Police Station on Saturday.
The tall, slender man with long hair simply said: "I came to turn myself in."
The Tokyo policeman he was addressing recognized him immediately as the man whose face had adorned wanted posters for over a decade, and stood there speechless with surprise, police said.
The Aum fugitive's arrest now has experts wondering why Hirata decided to turn himself in after more than 16 years on the run. Some of them think he could be trying to prevent the execution of Aum guru Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto. (Japan Times)
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