Japan Doomsday Cultist Given Death

T O K Y O, July 25, 2000 -- A former member of Japan’s AumShinrikyo doomsday cult was sentenced to death today — thesixth member sentenced to hang for murders committed before andduring the cult’s fatal gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Satoru Hashimoto, 33, was found guilty of the 1989 murder ofan anti-Aum lawyer and the lawyer’s wife and infant son as wellas for a 1994 sarin gas attack on a central Japan city thatkilled seven people and injured many others, court officialssaid.

Murdered lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, one of Aum’s most vocalcritics, had been investigating its activities.

Prosecutors said Hashimoto and other cult members crept intothe home of Sakamoto as he and his wife and son slept, injectedthem with lethal doses of potassium chloride and strangled them.

The murders drew public attention to the cult even beforethe lethal subway gas attack in March 1995, which left 12 deadand thousands ill, shocking a nation which had long prideditself on the safety of its citizens.

‘Unprecedented Brutality’

Tokyo District Court Judge Toshio Nagai said Hashimoto, akarate expert and bodyguard to cult founder Shoko Asahara,deserved the maximum penalty as his crimes were unprecedentedlybrutal, Japanese media reports said.

Kazuaki Okazaki, another former senior Aum member, was alsosentenced to death in 1998 for the murder of the Sakamoto family— the first death sentence handed down to Aum members.

Executions in Japan are by hanging, but take place onlyrarely. Most of those condemned spend many years in prison.

Hashimoto was also charged with building a plant to producesarin gas used in the attacks.

Prosecutors had said Hashimoto blindly obeyed Asahara andtook an active part in the crimes because he wanted to bepromoted within the cult, Kyodo news agency said.

Last week, two other Aum members were sentenced to death formurder and attempted murder for their roles in releasing sarinnerve gas in the Tokyo subway incident.

Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday that the two, ToruToyoda, 32, and Kenichi Hirose, 36, are appealing against theirsentences.

Cult Trials Continue

Another key member of the cult, Yasuo Hayashi, 42, dubbed a“murder machine” by the media for his crimes, was sentenced todeath in June because, the judge said, he released the largestamount of sarin gas in the subway attack.

Cult leader Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto,remains on trial for organising the gassing and 16 othercharges.

Asahara’s trial is now in its fifth year and could go onmuch longer given Japan’s notoriously snail-paced court system,with some legal experts saying it may well take more than 15years for a final verdict.

Of the five cult members charged with the Tokyo subwayattack, four have received the death penalty and one lifeimprisonment.

Most of Aum’s leaders are behind bars, but worries about thecult’s activities prompted the government to place it undersurveillance in February for three years.

The cult has changed its name to Aleph — the first letterof the Hebrew alphabet — and insists it is now a benignreligious group. In the past, it preached that the world wascoming to an end and that the cult must arm itself to preparefor calamities.