Former Japanese Cult Leader Appeals Execution
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer Tokyo, Japan (AHN)-News reports say defense lawyers filed an appeal Monday for a former cult leader sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing that killed 12 people and hospitalized thousands more. For masterminding the attack, in which members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult released deadly sarin gas on trains converging on the city's government district, Shoko Asahara was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to hang. According to the AP report, the nearly blind former leader, who once commanded a powerful group with about 40,000 members, mumbled incoherently during his trial, interrupting sessions with bizarre outbursts in English. Last month, a court-appointed psychiatrist said Asahara may have been feigning mental illness. Asahara has also been convicted of plotting a 1994 gas attack in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto that killed seven people, the kidnapping and murder of an anti-cult lawyer and his family, and other slayings. Meanwhile, at its pinnacle, the cult claimed 10,000 followers in Japan and another 30,000 in Russia. Now named Aleph, the group has about 6,500 members and is under surveillance by Japan's Public Safety Agency.
Article © All Headline News - All Rights Reserved
|
