JAPAN/FILE: Female suspect of 1995 Tokyo nerve gas attack arrested after running for seventeen years

Record ID: 353649

  • Title: JAPAN/FILE: Female suspect of 1995 Tokyo nerve gas attack arrested after running for seventeen years
  • Date: 5th June 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 4, 2012) (REUTERS) PEOPLE PASSING BY POLICE POSTER MUG SHOT OF KIKUCHI ON POLICE POSTER PEOPLE WALKING PASS MUG SHOT OF KIKUCHI COVERED WITH SIGN READING IN JAPANESE : "ARRESTED" MUG SHOT OF KIKUCHI'S EYES ON POLICE POSTER
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA9T28L613E66GCXEZ23KCQNDNC
  • Story Text: A member of the cult Aum Shinrikyo behind the deadly release of the sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway station in 1995, was arrested on Sunday (June 3) after 17 years on the run.
    Naoko Kikuchi, 40 years-old, was arrested after a neighbour tipped police of her whereabouts in Sagamihara city, south-west of Tokyo.
    Japanese media report that she had been living with a colleague from her work in a nursing home at the time of her arrest.
    Once in police custody, she admitted to producing the sarin gas though she said she did not know what it was, local media said.
    Japanese media say her arrest could shed more light on the sarin gas subway attack and affect the timing of death sentence handed down on cult leader, Asahara Shoko and 12 other followers on death row.
    Kikuchi had been one of the two remaining members of the cult still on the run, according to police.
    In January, another cult member, Makoto Hirata, turned himself.
    Shoko Asahara, the cult's founder - real name Chizuo Matsumoto - had a death sentence confirmed in 2006. Aum Shinrikyo was behind simultaneous attacks with sarin nerve gas on five Tokyo subway trains in 1995 which killed 12 people and made thousands ill.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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