Six members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult hanged
The group was responsible for the Sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway in 1995 in which 13 people died and 6,200 were hurt. For the Minister of Justice, "The pain and anguish of people killed and their families, as well as survivors left with disabilities, is unimaginable."
Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The last six members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult (Aum supreme truth) responsible for the Sarin gas attack on 20 March 1995 in the Tokyo subway were hanged this morning.
The executions came after the last appeals held in January. "I ordered the executions after carefully considering the matter," said Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa. "The pain and anguish of people killed and their families, as well as survivors left with disabilities, is unimaginable," he added.
On 6 July, the first seven members were executed, including the leader Shoko Asahara (picture 2). The Sarin gas attack killed 13 people. Some 6,200 were wounded.
In 2006 the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence. The group was accused of several other murders and a previous Sarin gas attack in 1994, which killed eight people and wounded 600.
The witnesses of the 1995 subway attack said they saw some bags from which liquid and smoke came out. People suffocated in a few seconds. Others were blinded and became paralysed.
The cult started in 1984 as a spiritual group and yoga school, mixing Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. Later, it added elements of Christian apocalyptic prophecies.
Its leader Shoko Asahara – whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto – called himself both Christ and the "first enlightened" since Buddha.
Aum Shinrikyo gained official status as a religious organisation in Japan in 1989 and picked up a sizeable global following. At its peak, it had tens of thousands of followers worldwide.
The group gradually morphed into a paranoid doomsday cult and was eventually declared a terrorist organisation is several countries.
It is still legal in Japan, although designated as "dangerous religion" subject to surveillance. It still has thousands of followers.
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06/07/2018 13:58
