Islam Mohamed Himu

is a Bangladeshi businessman in Japan who was accused of al-Qaeda-related activities.

Early life

Himu lived in Canada, where he met and married a Japanese woman; the two came to Japan together in 1995. After moving to Japan, he lived in Toda, Saitama Prefecture, and had two children with his wife. He established a telecommunications business, Ryo International, in 1995, which sold prepaid telephone cards and mobile phones; it had been growing rapidly, from ¥40 a million of sales in 2000 to ¥350 a million in 2001 and ¥800 a million in 2003. He gained permanent residency in Japan in 2000. He had an office in Tokyo's Akihabara district as well a branch in Yokosuka, where he employed three Filipina immigrants, but rarely visited the Yokosuka office, according to the building's owner.

Arrest and release

Himu was arrested in a dawn raid on 26 May 2004 in Tokyo on charges of falsifying business-related documents; police targeted him because of his alleged connection to French fugitive Lionel Dumont, who had stayed in Japan between 2002 and 2003. The prosecutors declined to indict him on any charges relating to alleged al-Qaeda connections. In December 2007, the Tokyo District Court ordered the Sankei Shimbun to pay Himu in compensation for their having published a front-page report giving his true name and falsely claiming he was a "top terrorist"; the court stated that the publication of his name was inappropriate.