During my tenure as Commander of the Beirut Military Region in the late 1990s, the late Judge Nasri Lahoud—then the Government Commissioner to the Military Court—invited me to a meeting in his office with the Japanese Ambassador.
The Ambassador offered over $40 million in assistance to the Military Prosecution, including advanced technical equipment, crime detection tools, and DNA technology—on one single condition: the extradition of Okamoto to Japan.
Judge Nasri Lahoud’s refusal was absolute. He categorically rejected even discussing the matter, telling the Japanese Ambassador in no uncertain terms that, in his eyes and in the eyes of many, Okamoto was a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. Because of that courageous, patriotic stance, Okamoto remained a free man in Lebanon.
May God have mercy on the freedom fighter Kozo Okamoto, and on the honorable and patriotic judge, Nasri Jamil Lahoud.