Former Toyota Executive Released 20 Days After Arrest
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Former Toyota Motor Corp. executive Julie Hamp left a Tokyo jail 20 days after police arrested her for violating Japan’s drug laws. U.S. ambassador Caroline Kennedy helped secure the release, said an official familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors decided not to indict Hamp, 55, who had been held by Tokyo police since June 18 on suspicion she imported the pain medication oxycodone, because the pills were meant for her physical condition and not for drug abuse. She left the jail in Tokyo’s Harajuku district Wednesday afternoon in a silver Toyota Alphard. Kennedy spoke with Japanese authorities about the case against Hamp before her release, according to the U.S. official.