WORLD Cult boss executed

Mystery remains over deadly gas attacks on Tokyo subway

THE execution of Japanese doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara leaves unanswered questions about Aum Shinrikyo, the cult behind the 1995 sarin-gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and sickened 6000.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga confirmed that Asahara, who had been on death row, was executed yesterday.

Public broadcaster NHK TV, citing unidentified sources, said six other cult members were also hanged.

Born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955, Asahara founded Aum Shinrikyo, or Supreme Truth, in the mid-1980s. The group attracted young people disillusioned with the modern materialistic way of life.

The cult, which mixed Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings, staged a series of crimes including simultaneous saringas attacks on Tokyo subway trains during rush hour in March 1995.

Sarin, a nerve gas, was originally developed by the Nazis.

The images of bodies, many in business suits, sprawled across platforms stunned Japan and shattered its myth of public safety.

More than 20 years of trials involving Aum members, including Asahara, came to an end in January 2018, when the life sentence of Katsuya Takahashi for his part in the 1995 subway sarin-gas attack was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Thirteen cult members were then on death row.

Asahara, 63, a podgy, partially blind yoga instructor, was sentenced to hang in 2004 on 13 charges, related to the subway gas attacks and a series of other crimes that killed more than a dozen more people.

He pleaded not guilty and never testified to reveal the motives for the gas attacks, but muttered and made incoherent remarks in court during the eight years of his trial.

Asahara’s sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006.