Several ex-members of the apocalyptic cult of Japan including the executed chief: the media

Elaine Lies and Chang-Ran Kim

TOKYO (Reuters) – The former leader of Aum and several other members of the Japanese apocalyptic cult who led a lethal attack on sarin gas in the subway. Tokyo in 1995 were executed on Friday, the public broadcaster NHK reported:

Chizuo Matsumoto, who called Shoko Asahara, was the first of 13 to be hanged for the attacks, which killed 13 people and more 6,000 injured, NHK said. The Aum Shinri Kyo, or Aum Supreme Truth worship, which mixed Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings, organized a series of crimes, including simultaneous attacks on sarin gas in Tokyo subways. rush hour in March 1995. Sarin, a nerve gas, was originally developed by the Nazis.

Body images, often in business suit, spread on platforms stunned Japan and broke the myth of public safety. Twenty years of trial involving Aum members, including Asahara, ended in January 2018, when the Supreme Court upheld Katsuya Takahashi's life sentence for his role in the 1995 subway. Thirteen members of the cult were then on death row

A Justice Department official said that he could not immediately confirm the reports.

Asahara, 63, partially blind yoga instructor, was sentenced to 13 He pleaded not guilty and never testified, but muttered and made inconsistent remarks in court during the eight years of his trial. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006.

Asahara, who founded Aum in 1987, said that the United States would attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland, He also said that he had traveled until 2006 At that time, the cult had at least 10,000 members in Japan and abroad, including graduates from some of Japan's most prestigious universities. A number lived in a huge communal complex at the foot of Mount Fuji, where the group studied its teachings and practiced bizarre rituals but also built an arsenal of weapons, including sarin.

1994, releasing gas in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto on a summer night in an attempt to kill three judges settled on worship. The attack, which failed, used a refrigerated truck to release gas and a wind dispersed it into a residential area, killing eight people and injuring hundreds

(Written by Chang-Ran Kim, edited by Michael Perry)