TOKYO: A Japanese court ruled two years in prison with a four-year suspended sentence for a Japanese national whose refusal to put on a face mask on a plane in 2020 caused an emergency landing, reported Sputnik.
University staff worker Junya Okuno refused to wear a mask during a Peach Aviation flight from Hokkaido to Osaka after the plane departed, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday.
The flight attendants asked Okuno to put on a mask in the aircraft cabin, but he denied the request, saying that it was unscientific and demanding that it be presented to him in writing, the report said. He cited his health problems and said that he had been suffering from asthma from an early age and wearing a mask was difficult for him, the broadcaster reported.
The plane’s captain regarded Okuno’s behaviour as a threat to the other 120 passengers and made an emergency landing in Niigata, where the man was asked to leave the aircraft, the report also said.
It added that the departure delay was two hours and 15 minutes.
The Japanese prosecutors demanded that Okuno be sentenced to four years on suspicion of causing damage to professional activity and mutilation. The court did not establish the damage but agreed that the man’s actions constituted a security threat, according to the report. - Bernama
