Cultists Given Death for Tokyo Subway Attack
T O K Y O, July 17 -- Two members of a Japanesedoomsday cult were sentenced to death today for murder andattempted murder for a 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo undergroundin which 12 people died.
A third man, Shigeo Sugimoto, 41 who drove a getaway car,was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Monday’s ruling completes the sentencing of the five membersof the Aum Shinrikyo, or Supreme Truth cult, who had beencharged with spreading the sarin by carrying plastic bagscontaining the deadly gas onto trains and then puncturing themwith umbrellas.
Another key member of the cult, 42-year-old Yasuo Hayashi —dubbed a “murder machine” by the media for his crimes — waslast month sentenced to death because, the judge said, hereleased the largest amount of sarin gas on the underground.
Tokyo District Court Judge Manabu Yamazaki said on Mondayformer cult members Toru Toyoda, 32, and Kenichi Hirose, 36,deserved the death penalty for their role in releasing sarinnerve gas in an incident that injured thousands.
Mind Control?
The two men had admitted to the charges but argued in courtthat their minds had been controlled by cult leader ShokoAsahara, saying he masterminded the attack.
“Even if we were to take into account the fact that theirminds were controlled by Asahara, what they have done is graveand deserves the death penalty,” public broadcaster NHK quotedYamazaki as saying.
He said the pair bore a huge amount of responsibility forwhat he called a cruel and indiscriminate attack.
In addition to the gassing, Toyoda was accused of attemptingto kill then-Tokyo Governor Yukio Aoshima by mailing a packagebomb to the Tokyo government office.
The package exploded when Aoshima’s secretary opened it,blowing off all the fingers on his left hand.
Between 1994 and 1995, Toyoda, Hirose and Asahara alsoplanned to manufacture 1,000 automatic rifles modeled on theRussian-made AK-47 and succeeded in producing one at an AUMfacility, Kyodo news agency said.
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