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| Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Asahara / photo file from Investing.com |
The leader
of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out sarin gas attack in 1995 on the Tokyo
subway has been executed, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga
confirmed on Friday.
The so-called
Doomsday cult was founded by Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto.
Asahara,
had been prisoned for 22 years before his execution.
The attack
he organized k*lled more than a dozen people and thousands injured.
Twelve
other members of the doomsday cult were also sentenced to death, but there were
no details yet whether they were also scheduled this week.
Executions
in Japan were done in secret, no warning in advance to the prisoner, families
or even to their lawyer – this according to Amnesty International. Prisoners
would only know hours before execution.
Asahara
founded the cult in 1984 which quickly attracted thousands of believers and
followers, combining its forecast of a coming apocalypse, ---which would come
after the US attacked Japan and turned it into a nuclear wasteland -- with
traditional religious teachings and new age tactics.
Many of its
followers were rich, highly educated scientists and engineers, who helped the
cult to bring a lot of money.
As the cult
grew in numbers, some families of its members began to get alarmed, there were
also complaints of brainwashing and abuse within the Aum Shinrikyo.
Then came
the attack in 1995 on the Tokyo subway, which shot the cult to global notoriety.
Members of
the cult released sarin gas on trains full of commuters during rush hour, which
k*lled 13 people and injured more than five thousand.
Asahara, together
with dozens of his followers got arrested following the incident.
Source: CNN
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