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THE LEADER OF the Japanese doomsday cult that carried out a deadly 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway was executed today along with six of his followers, decades after the horrific crime.
Shoko Asahara, the charismatic near-blind leader of the Aum Shinrikyo sect, had been on death row for more than ten years for crimes including the nerve agent attack, which shocked the world and prompted a massive crackdown on the cult.
Japan’s Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa confirmed the seven executions, saying the Aum members were responsible for “extremely atrocious and grave acts that were unprecedented and should never happen again”.
The hangings are the first executions in connection with the attack, which killed 13 people and injured thousands more. A further six cult followers remain on death row.
Japan is one of the few developed nations to retain the death penalty, and public support for it remains high despite international criticism.
Relatives of those killed in the attack, and others who were injured welcomed the executions.
“I reacted calmly… But I did feel the world had become slightly brighter,” said Atsushi Sakahara, a film director who was injured in the sarin attack at Tokyo’s Roppongi station.
“I’ve been in pain for years,” he told AFP.
It will be impossible to ever forget the incident, but the execution brings a kind of closure.
Shizue Takahashi, whose subway worker husband was killed in the attack, told reporters she felt Asahara’s execution was entirely appropriate.
“He of course deserves death,” she told reporters.
“The execution was processed as it should be… so no tears for me at all.”
Horror commute
The attack during the capital’s notoriously crowded rush hour paralysed Tokyo, turning it into a virtual warzone.
Members of the group released the chemical in liquid form at five points through the subway network, and soon commuters began struggling to breathe, staggering from trains with their eyes watering.
Others keeled over, foaming at the mouth, with blood streaming from their noses.
Sakae Ito, who was on the crowded Hibiya line that day, recalled commuters coughing uncontrollably.
“Liquid was spread on the floor in the middle of the carriage, people were convulsing in their seats. One man was leaning against a pole, his shirt open, bodily fluids leaking out.”
Panic soon set in, with subway workers screaming at people to evacuate and passengers convulsing on carriage floors.
Japanese Self-Defense Force members dressed in hazmat suits and gas masks descended into the depths to help the injured and deal with the poison.
Sarin stockpile
Though concerns about the Aum had already been raised, the attack prompted a massive crackdown on the cult’s headquarters in the foothills of Mount Fuji, where authorities discovered a plant capable of producing enough sarin to kill millions.
Asahara was sentenced to death after a lengthy prosecution during which he regularly delivered rambling and incoherent monologues in English and Japanese.
Born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955 on the southwestern island of Kyushu, he changed his name in the 1980s, when the Aum cult was being developed.
A charismatic speaker, he cloaked himself in mysticism to attract recruits, including the doctors and engineers who manufactured nerve agent for the group.
The Aum cult, now renamed Aleph, officially disowned Asahara in 2000, but it has never been banned and experts say the former guru retained a strong influence.
A new ‘guru’?
Despite the horror that persists over the Aum’s subway attack and other crimes, some experts had warned against the execution of Asahara and his acolytes.
They said his death could trigger the naming of a new cult leader, possibly his second son, and his followers could be elevated to the status of “martyrs” among remaining adherents.
Japanese authorities said they were on alert for potential retaliation after the executions and local media reported police were visiting groups linked to the Aum and successor cults.
Today’s hangings were the largest simultaneous execution in Japan since 1911, when 11 people were hanged for plotting to assassinate the emperor.
They were criticised by rights group Amnesty International, which described the cult’s acts as “despicable” but said “the death penalty is never the answer”.
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People are causing dangerous conditions, not ice. Conditions are conditions.
Don’t make unnecessary journeys. Please take care on treacherous roads.
No. Icy conditions ‘slow things down’. Things like not indicating properly or not watching your mirrors, or unrestrained children, or worn tyres, now that’s what creates dangerous driving conditions.
Dublin City roads icy?
Main roads seem to be ok but there is some ice on smaller roads and in estates.
So much for commuting to Dublin for all the jobs that have created in Dublin in recession years ” gatzos vans , ice,snow, floods, tailbacks, parking, clamping,blood pressure,stress,long days ,poor quality of family live,tiredness, etc,
It would do you well to spend some time living outside Dublin and then you’d realise how easy you really have it. There were no buses running from my hometown in Cork this morning…think of all the people who rely purely on that bus (because we they don’t have the transport options you have) to get to work. And that happened every icy day in the past few years when I was living there.
We’re not all commuters. People drive in the morning for all sorts of reasons, not just to work.
Footpaths and roads (Cork) very bad walking the dog this morning, usual 25 minute route took us 40 minutes!
Thankfully I work from home on Fridays so that’s all I had to deal with.
Maryborough Woods is like an ice rink. Crash on Carr’s hill earlier due to ice. Traffic very slow on N28 from Douglas to Shanbally
Thanks, I’ll add that in to the liveblog now.
A lot of accidents around Cork this morning.
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