Japan executes sect members for sarin gas attack

Japan.- Japan executed today the six members of the Supreme Sect of Truth, responsible for the sarin gas attack on the subway of Tokyo in 1995, which they were on death row, according to the Kyodo News Agency quoting an official.

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The six were sentenced to death for having participated in the 1995 bombing and in 1995 murders perpetrated by the same group led by Shoko Asahara, who was hanged on July 6 with six other members who orchestrated and planned these crimes.

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The persons executed today are Kenichi Hirose (54 years), Toru Toyoda (50 years), Masato Yokoyama ( 54), Yasuo Hayashi (60) Satoru Hashimoto (51) and Kazuaki Okazaki (57).

The first four participated directly in the Tokyo Metro attack using their umbrellas to drill sarin gas bags that they deposited in the wagons of several lines of the underground transport network at the morning rush hour of March 20, 1995.

A total of 13 people died, dozens remained in a vegetative state and 6300 were intoxicated after breathing the gas from the sarin packets.

Satoru Hashimoto and Kazuaki Okazaki were convicted of the 1989 murder of attorney Tsutsumi Sakamoto (who was preparing a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the cult), his wife and their elderly baby. barely a year.

In addition, Satoru Hashimoto and Yasuo Hayashi were also found guilty of another attack in 1994 with sarin gas in Matsumoto (Central Japan) that had served as a rehearsal for the Tokyo bombing.

These six members of the Supreme Truth (Aum shinrikyo in Japanese) were the last members of the group condemned to die alive.

The 13 death sentences and 6 life sentences that have left years of judicial proceedings have not yet clarified the many mysteries surrounding this "New Age" sect. , who even came to compete with little success in the 1990 general election.

In about a decade, Guru Asahara has gone from being a yoga instructor to leading an organization capable of attracting young people belonging to the intellectual and economic elites of the country, kidnapping and murdering critics and opponents, manufacturing automatic and chemical weapons. the worst attack on Japanese soil since the end of the Second World War.