JAPAN: Japan court finalises death penalty for doomsday cult guru who masterminded a 1995 Tokyo subway gassing

Record ID: 464814

  • Title: JAPAN: Japan court finalises death penalty for doomsday cult guru who masterminded a 1995 Tokyo subway gassing
  • Date: 17th September 2006
  • Summary: (EU) TOKYO, JAPAN (FILE - 1995) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VICTIMS OF SUBWAY GAS ATTACK (EU) TOKYO, JAPAN (FILE - 1995) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE AND VICTIMS IN HOSPITAL SOON AFTER GAS ATTACK
  • Embargoed: 2nd October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA7VS21PNXB9SGTERJ0Y5OVQI4B
  • Story Text: Japan's Supreme Court rejected on Friday (September 15) an appeal against the death sentence for the former leader of a doomsday cult, clearing the way for him to be hanged for his role in masterminding a 1995 subway gas attack.
    The decision was a blow to lawyers for Shoko Asahara, 51, who had argued that the former leader of Aum Shinri Kyo, or Supreme Truth Sect, was mentally incompetent and had requested that the case be suspended.
    Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was found guilty of responsibility for the gassing on Tokyo rush-hour trains that killed 12 and sickened thousands, and was sentenced to death by a Tokyo court in February 2004.
    Friday's court decision technically means the former guru could be hanged at anytime once final approval is given by the justice minister. But Japan only carries out executions once or twice a year at most, usually when parliament is not in session.
    The 1995 gas attack injured about 5,500 people, some permanently, when members of the cult released sarin, a lethal nerve gas first developed but not used by the Nazis in World War Two.
    The gassing, with its images of bodies lying across platforms and soldiers in gas masks sealing off Tokyo subway stations, stunned the Japanese public and shattered the country's self-image as a haven of public safety. The nearly blind Asahara was also found guilty of other charges including a series of crimes that killed 15 people. The son of a poor "tatami" (straw mat) maker, Asahara graduated from a school for the blind before working as an acupuncturist and amassing wealth with sales of Chinese medicine in the early 1980s.
    He later studied yoga and started a school to teach it, going on to set up the cult in 1987, mixing Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings.
    Under Asahara, who had predicted that the United States would attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland, followers submitted to an ascetic communal life and performed rites such as swallowing water and then vomiting it up to "purify" them.
    At its peak, the cult boasted at least 10,000 members in Japan and overseas, including those who studied science at the nation's elite universities.
    Raids on the cult's sprawling complexes at the foot of Mount Fuji after the subway attack uncovered stockpiles of high-tech equipment and dangerous chemicals.
    Aum Shinri Kyo, which admitted involvement in the subway gassing, later changed its name to Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its leaders insist the cult is now benign, but Japanese authorities still keep its membership of more than 1,000 under surveillance.
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