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Shoko Asahara, the ex-guru of the Aum Supreme Truth sect, was executed by hanging on Friday, July 6th. His organization was behind the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo metro in 1995, which left 13 dead and 6,300 wounded.
He was the face of the Aum Supreme Truth sect and the instigator of the sect. Tokyo sarin gas attack in 1995. More than 23 years after the events, the former guru Shoko Asahara, Chizuo Matsu Matsumoto of his real name, was executed by hanging on Friday, July 6th. Six other members were also executed and six others are still waiting on death row.
The sentence 23 years after the events
This is the first time that ex-members of the Aum sect have been executed Supreme Truth. In recent months, rumors circulated about their probable execution because some of them had been displaced. The first death sentence was pbaded in September 1999. It was only three months later, in December, that the sect officially recognized its responsibility for the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The attack killed 13 people and poisoned 6,300 others.
Shoko Asahara had seen his sentence confirmed in 2006 and had waited 12 years for his execution. Although Japanese law stipulates that death row prisoners must be executed within six months of the confirmation of their sentence, in practice they remain in prison for years.
In total, the Japanese courts held sect Aum responsible for the deaths of 29 people and 6,500 wounded. Some 190 other members of the sect were sentenced to various sentences.
From Aum to Aleph
The Aum Truth Supreme cult was founded in 1984 by Shoko Asahara, a half-blind yoga master. This sect, adept of a doctrine mixing Buddhism, Hinduism and apocalyptic theories, attracted up to 10,000 followers.
See also: In Japan, the "new religions" still attract the faithful
At the end of 1995, the sect loses its official status. Only four years later, it is renamed Aleph, as the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its members then want to break with this violent past and then commit themselves in writing to respect the law.
From now on, even if the activities of the organization remain difficult to determine, it has a legal existence in Japan. It has approximately 1,600 members and 28 institutions in its name throughout the country. It also seeks to play the card of transparency with the Japanese authorities and has thus banned forbidden closed meetings and the presence of a guru.
The officials also acknowledged a certain responsibility of the founder in the acts that he are imputed, but the organization kept him until now as spiritual master.
Despite this attempt at penance, the Aleph organization remains closely watched by the police. The Japanese security forces have arrested the last wanted member of the Aum sect in June 2012, Katsuya Takashi. Proof that Japan has not finished with this sect, trauma of thousands of Japanese.
Read also: Japan maintains the law of silence on the death penalty
Justine Benoit
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