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The hell, I honestly didn't know this monster is still alive until this week. For some reason, I've always thought they would've executed his ass years ago.
Anyway, perfect use for the Death Penalty, perhaps we should buy some high-quality Japanese ropes rather than the expensive chemicals that we reserve for our mass murderers.
Japan Executes Leader of Doomsday Cult
Aum Shinrikyo head Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, had been on death row since 2004
By Alastair Gale | July 6, 2018
TOKYO—The head of a Japanese doomsday cult and six of his followers convicted for deadly gas attacks in the 1990s were executed on Friday, Japan’s justice minister said.
Cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, had been on death row since 2004.
During morning rush hour on March 20, 1995, members of the cult he led, Aum Shinrikyo, punctured plastic bags with sarin nerve gas on three Tokyo subway lines, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000.
The attack shook the image of Japan as a safe and orderly society, as victims suffered excruciating pain, many of them sprawled on the streets and subway platforms.
Matsumoto, who was 63 years old, was one of 13 cult members sentenced to hang for their part in the attack. An earlier sarin gas attack by the cult in central Japan in 1994 killed seven people.
The cult also used other nerve agents against Japanese citizens, including VX, which was used to kill the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year.
A 1999 report on antiterrorism capabilities by the Gilmore Commission in the U.S. said that Aum Shinrikyo at one point had enough sarin to kill 4.2 million people, in addition to other biochemical weapons such as anthrax.
Aum Shinrikyo was formed by Matsumoto in the 1980s. It practiced a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism before turning into a paranoid apocalyptic cult centered on its leader, who claimed to be a messiah.
The group set up a commune at the foot of Mount Fuji where Matsumoto preached to his followers and Aum’s scientists produced nerve gas.
Aum had about 10,000 members in Japan at its peak in the 1990s, and thousands more in Russia and other countries. A successor group of the cult remains active in Japan with around 1,500 members, according to the police.
Matsumoto, who was partially blind and instantly recognizable to many Japanese, lost his final appeal to overturn his death sentence in September 2006. He rarely spoke and didn’t testify in court.
After Matsumoto was hanged at a detention center in Tokyo, six other senior figures in the cult were executed in major cities across Japan, Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said at a press conference.
Ms. Kamikawa listed more than a dozen criminal convictions against Matsumoto and others in the group, including the 1989 murder of an anti-Aum lawyer, his wife and 1-year-old son. In the 1994 attack, Aum members sprayed sarin gas at a local apartment complex where judges hearing a case against the cult resided.
Matsumoto imagined he would one day rule Japan as a king and produced deadly gases to pursue his goal, Ms. Kamikawa said.
Death sentences are only carried out in Japan when all court proceedings against the accused and others in related cases have concluded. Expectations rose that Matsumoto would be executed when the country’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling of life imprisonment earlier this year for a cult member, the last open case against the group.
Japan carries out a few executions most years, always by hanging and almost always for murder. The previous executions were late last year, of two men convicted of murder.
Opinion polls generally show strong public support in Japan for the death penalty. Activists who oppose it highlight how prisoners can spend years on death row but are usually only given a few hours’ notice of their execution.
“The majority of people [in Japan] think the death penalty is necessary for extremely brutal and malicious crimes,” Ms. Kamikawa said.
Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the police were on alert for any attempts at retaliation for the executions.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-executes-leader-of-doomsday-cult-1530838682?mod=e2fb
Anyway, perfect use for the Death Penalty, perhaps we should buy some high-quality Japanese ropes rather than the expensive chemicals that we reserve for our mass murderers.
Japan Executes Leader of Doomsday Cult
Aum Shinrikyo head Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, had been on death row since 2004
By Alastair Gale | July 6, 2018
TOKYO—The head of a Japanese doomsday cult and six of his followers convicted for deadly gas attacks in the 1990s were executed on Friday, Japan’s justice minister said.
Cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, had been on death row since 2004.
During morning rush hour on March 20, 1995, members of the cult he led, Aum Shinrikyo, punctured plastic bags with sarin nerve gas on three Tokyo subway lines, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000.
The attack shook the image of Japan as a safe and orderly society, as victims suffered excruciating pain, many of them sprawled on the streets and subway platforms.
Matsumoto, who was 63 years old, was one of 13 cult members sentenced to hang for their part in the attack. An earlier sarin gas attack by the cult in central Japan in 1994 killed seven people.
The cult also used other nerve agents against Japanese citizens, including VX, which was used to kill the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year.
A 1999 report on antiterrorism capabilities by the Gilmore Commission in the U.S. said that Aum Shinrikyo at one point had enough sarin to kill 4.2 million people, in addition to other biochemical weapons such as anthrax.
Aum Shinrikyo was formed by Matsumoto in the 1980s. It practiced a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism before turning into a paranoid apocalyptic cult centered on its leader, who claimed to be a messiah.
The group set up a commune at the foot of Mount Fuji where Matsumoto preached to his followers and Aum’s scientists produced nerve gas.
Aum had about 10,000 members in Japan at its peak in the 1990s, and thousands more in Russia and other countries. A successor group of the cult remains active in Japan with around 1,500 members, according to the police.
Matsumoto, who was partially blind and instantly recognizable to many Japanese, lost his final appeal to overturn his death sentence in September 2006. He rarely spoke and didn’t testify in court.
After Matsumoto was hanged at a detention center in Tokyo, six other senior figures in the cult were executed in major cities across Japan, Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said at a press conference.
Ms. Kamikawa listed more than a dozen criminal convictions against Matsumoto and others in the group, including the 1989 murder of an anti-Aum lawyer, his wife and 1-year-old son. In the 1994 attack, Aum members sprayed sarin gas at a local apartment complex where judges hearing a case against the cult resided.
Matsumoto imagined he would one day rule Japan as a king and produced deadly gases to pursue his goal, Ms. Kamikawa said.
Death sentences are only carried out in Japan when all court proceedings against the accused and others in related cases have concluded. Expectations rose that Matsumoto would be executed when the country’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling of life imprisonment earlier this year for a cult member, the last open case against the group.
Japan carries out a few executions most years, always by hanging and almost always for murder. The previous executions were late last year, of two men convicted of murder.
Opinion polls generally show strong public support in Japan for the death penalty. Activists who oppose it highlight how prisoners can spend years on death row but are usually only given a few hours’ notice of their execution.
“The majority of people [in Japan] think the death penalty is necessary for extremely brutal and malicious crimes,” Ms. Kamikawa said.
Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the police were on alert for any attempts at retaliation for the executions.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-executes-leader-of-doomsday-cult-1530838682?mod=e2fb
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