Tokyo, Sep 24 (DPA) Japan Friday decided to release a Chinese fishing boat captain whose arrest near disputed islands sparked a diplomatic dispute, a news report said.
Prosecutors in the southern city of Naha made the decision, Japan’s Kyodo News agency said.
China reacted to the announcement by reasserting its position that Japan’s action against the captain was ‘illegal and invalid’.
‘I reiterate that any form of the so-called judicial procedures taken by Japan against the Chinese captain are illegal and invalid,’ Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement.
Jiang said the Chinese government planned to send a plane to Japan to fly the captain, Zhan Qixiong, back to China.
China had repeatedly demanded the ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of the 41-year-old sailor who was arrested Sep 7.
Zhan was taken into custody after his boat collided twice with Japan Coast Guard vessels.
The incident took place near islands known as Senkaku in Japan, Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan.
The islands, together with the oil-rich surrounding area, are claimed by all three governments.
