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Gundam 00 Assistant Director Masaki Kitamura Released by Police
posted on by Egan Loo
The District Public Prosecutor's Office of Osaka released 42-year-old anime technical director Masaki Kitamura, after determining that it is possible that he had nothing to do with the massacre threat posted on the city's website in July.
The authorities determined that Kitamura's computer was infected by a virus, and that a third party had then remotely posted the massacre threat via Kitamura's computer. The public broadcaster charge a defendant, only to release him without a trial.
The authorities had arrested Kitamura in August. They had accused him of going to Osaka's inquiry page on the Internet and writing, "I will commit a massacre in Otaroad [in Osaka's Nipponbashi area] next Sunday. I will ram into pedestrian paradise, and after stabbing indiscriminately with a knife, I will commit suicide" on July 29 at about 9:45 p.m.
"Pedestrian paradise" is the traditional practice of otaku shopping counterpart to Tokyo's Akihabara.
According to the authorities, they analyzed the IP address that originated the threat and discovered it was linked to a high-speed wireless Japan Airlines, "I prepared an explosive device on a enger plane."
The suspect had denied the charges, saying, "I'm completely innocent."
Kitamura was an assistant director on both seasons of Wolf's Rain, and other series.
Sources: Jiji Press, NHK
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