Japan executed the perpetrators of a sarin gas attack in the subway

Shoko Asahada, leader of the sect

TOKYO

The judicial authorities of Japan have terminated one the most horrendous crimes in the country, the sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway pbadengers, which killed 13 people and made more than 6,000.

Shoko Asahara, 63 years old and leader of 39, a Japanese apocalyptic sect, was executed by dragging along with six of his followers.

The 1995 attack alerted a relatively safe country on the risk of urban terrorism. Some 2,000 police officers, with a powerful arsenal that included a canary in a cage to detect any poisonous gas, attacked the sect's enclosure near Mount Fuji.

Asahara, the self-proclaimed bearded guru who recruited scientists and other people for their worship, was found two months later, hiding in a compartment on the roof of a building.

As is the custom in Japan, the Ministry of Justice confirmed press reports that the leader of the sect and six other members were hanged for their participation in the sarin attack on the Tokyo subway and other crimes.

"That brought me peace of mind," said Kiyoe Iwata, who lost her daughter in the subway attack. , in statements to the NHK station. "I always wondered why it had to be my daughter and why she had to die, now I can visit her grave and tell her that."

The executions took a long time, but they were expected because the last trial had ended and some of the convicts had been transferred to other prisons. of this year. Six other members of the sect remain on death row.

The subway attack was the most famous crime of the sect, which was responsible for 27 deaths in total. The sect, called Aum Shinrikyo (the Supreme Truth), has accumulated an arsenal of chemical, biological and conventional weapons to execute Asahara's growing criminal orders in anticipation of a confrontation with the government. (AP, EFE and AFP)