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Japan executes sarin attack cult leader and six followers
TOKYO, July 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The leader of the Japanese doomsday cult
that carried out a deadly 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway was executed
Friday along with six of his followers, decades after the horrific crime.
Shoko Asahara, the charismatic near-blind leader of the Aum Shinrikyo sect,
had been on death row for more than ten years for crimes including the nerve
agent attack, which shocked the world and prompted a massive crackdown on the
cult.
Japan’s Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa confirmed the seven executions,
saying the Aum members were responsible for “extremely atrocious and grave
acts that were unprecedented and should never happen again”.
The hangings are the first executions in connection with the attack, which
killed 13 people and injured thousands more. A further six cult followers
remain on death row.
Japan is one of the few developed nations to retain the death penalty, and
public support for it remains high despite international criticism.
Relatives of those killed in the attack, and others who were injured
welcomed the executions.
“I reacted calmly… But I did feel the world had become slightly
brighter,” said Atsushi Sakahara, a film director who was injured in the
sarin attack at Tokyo’s Roppongi station.
“I’ve been in pain for years,” he told AFP.
“It will be impossible to ever forget the incident, but the execution
brings a kind of closure.”
Shizue Takahashi, whose subway worker husband was killed in the attack,
told reporters she felt Asahara’s execution was entirely appropriate.
“He of course deserves death,” she told reporters. “The execution was
processed as it should be… so no tears for me at all.”
– Horror commute –
MORE/MR/ 1150 hrs
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The attack during the capital’s notoriously crowded rush hour paralysed
Tokyo, turning it into a virtual warzone.
Members of the group released the chemical in liquid form at five points
through the subway network, and soon commuters began struggling to breathe,
staggering from trains with their eyes watering.
Others keeled over, foaming at the mouth, with blood streaming from their
noses.
Sakae Ito, who was on the crowded Hibiya line that day, recalled commuters
coughing uncontrollably.
“Liquid was spread on the floor in the middle of the carriage, people were
convulsing in their seats. One man was leaning against a pole, his shirt
open, bodily fluids leaking out.”
Panic soon set in, with subway workers screaming at people to evacuate and
passengers convulsing on carriage floors.
Japanese Self-Defense Force members dressed in hazmat suits and gas masks
descended into the depths to help the injured and deal with the poison.
– Sarin stockpile –
Though concerns about the Aum had already been raised, the attack prompted
a massive crackdown on the cult’s headquarters in the foothills of Mount
Fuji, where authorities discovered a plant capable of producing enough sarin
to kill millions.
Asahara was sentenced to death after a lengthy prosecution during which he
regularly delivered rambling and incoherent monologues in English and
Japanese.
Born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955 on the southwestern island of Kyushu, he
changed his name in the 1980s, when the Aum cult was being developed.
A charismatic speaker, he cloaked himself in mysticism to attract recruits,
including the doctors and engineers who manufactured nerve agent for the
group.
The Aum cult, now renamed Aleph, officially disowned Asahara in 2000, but
it has never been banned and experts say the former guru retained a strong
influence.
– A new ‘guru’? –
Despite the horror that persists over the Aum’s subway attack and other
crimes, some experts had warned against the execution of Asahara and his
acolytes.
They said his death could trigger the naming of a new cult leader, possibly
his second son, and his followers could be elevated to the status of
“martyrs” among remaining adherents.
Japanese authorities said they were on alert for potential retaliation
after the executions and local media reported police were visiting groups
linked to the Aum and successor cults.
Friday’s hangings were the largest simultaneous execution in Japan since
1911, when 11 people were hanged for plotting to assassinate the emperor.
They were criticised by rights group Amnesty International, which described
the cult’s acts as “despicable” but said “the death penalty is never the
answer”.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1150 hrs