Shoko Asahara

Stories: 2000-2001

Number of AUM cult members decreasing

_______________________

Death Penalty Sought in Japan Trial

("Seattle Post-Intelligencer," December 26, 2001)

TOKYO -- Prosecutors demanded the death penalty Wednesday for a former
leader of the doomsday cult that carried out a nerve gas attack in
Tokyo's subways that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.

Tomomitsu Niimi, former "home affairs minister" of the Aum Shinri Kyo
cult, is being tried in for the murders of 26 people in seven separate
attacks, including the 1995 subway attack and the slaying of a lawyer and his
family.

Prosecutors called for death, Tokyo District Court spokeswoman Mizuka
Oku said.

Niimi gained notoriety at the start of his trial in 1996 by refusing to
enter pleas and pledging eternal loyalty to Aum guru Shoko Asahara.

Niimi is accused of helping to organize the 1989 strangulation of lawyer
Tsutsumi Sakamoto, one of the first people to raise questions about the
cult's activities, along with his wife and son.

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is being tried separately
for allegedly masterminding the subway gas attack and other killings.
Several former cult leaders have been sentenced to death in those cases.

The cult, which advocated overthrowing the Japanese government by sowing
chaos, was declared bankrupt in March 1996 but has regrouped under a new
name, Aleph. It is under surveillance by Japan's Public Safety Agency,
which has warned that the group is still a threat.

_______________________		 

Aum trying to increase its appeal

("Japan Today," December 23, 2001)

TOKYO - The Aum Shinrikyo cult, which now calls itself Aleph, is trying
to
increase its appeal by portraying itself as an "open cult" in an effort
to
expand its operations, the Public Security Investigation Agency said
Saturday.

The agency said in an annual report that Aum has established new
headquarters at three Minami-Karasuyama condominium complexes in Tokyo's
Setagaya Ward, where the cult's regional leaders from across Japan meet
monthly. (Kyodo News)

_______________________

Aum trying to increase its appeal

("Japan Today,"  December 19, 2001)

MOSCOW - Russia has refused entry to 16 members of the Tokyo-based Aum

Shinrikyo religious cult this year, Federal Security Service (FSB) head

Nikolay Patrushev said Tuesday, according to Interfax news agency.

The FSB declined to make public the nationality of the members or the

purpose of their attempted visits. Aum, which now calls itself Aleph,

claims it used to have several tens of thousand followers in Russia. It is now

outlawed in the country. (Kyodo News)

_______________________

Court upholds death sentence for ex-AUM cultist

("Japan Today," December 13, 2001)

TOKYO - The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a death sentence for a

former senior AUM Shinrikyo member who murdered an anti-AUM lawyer, his

wife and infant son and also a follow AUM member both in 1989.

Presiding Judge Yoshimasa Kawabe affirmed the Tokyo District Court's

1998 death sentence against Kazuaki Okazaki, 41, finding him guilty of

killing Yokohama lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, then 33, his wife Satoko, then 29,

and their 1-year-old son Tatsuhiko. Sakamoto was at the time leader of a

group of lawyers representing families whose relatives joined the cult. (Kyodo

News)

_______________________

Extremism fills intellectual void?

Traditional-modern culture rift seen causing identity loss

by Hiroshii Matsubara ("The Japan Times: December 11, 2001)

The profiles of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the

United States remind scholar Hiromi Shimada of senior Aum Shinrikyo

members.

The 48-year-old expert in religious studies explained it cannot be

overlooked that many of those who carried out the attacks in the U.S.

were highly educated, just like top Aum figures involved in the cult's

heinous crimes in the early to mid-1990s.

"Those elite intellectuals committed atrocious crimes because of what

they thought were their religious beliefs," the former professor at Japan

Women's University in Tokyo said. "This symbolizes the troubles brought by the

rapid development of global capitalism in recent decades."

Shimada, a specialist in cults and new religious movements that

mushroomed in the 1980s and 1990s, found Aum an interesting subject because its

doctrine appeared to him to be a form of Buddhist fundamentalism.

Also interesting for the scholar was Aum's reclusive communal lifestyle,

which is unique among Japan's religious groups.

But his academic inquiry took a heavy toll -- he was forced to resign

from the university in 1995 due to false media reports that he was a staunch

supporter of the cult. Such reports included claims that he was given a

"holy name" by cult founder Shoko Asahara and had urged one of his

students to join Aum.

Shimada recently published a book titled "Aum -- Why a Religion Led to

Terrorism." In the book, which took three years to complete, he examines

how the cult developed a hatred toward society so deep that it led to the

crimes, including the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that

killed 12 and injured over 5,000.

Shimada said he believes the Sept. 11 attacks are different from past

terrorist acts in the sense that it was a symbolic attack against

Western civilization, while having almost no political aim comprehensible by

those other than the perpetrators.

"The attacks appeared to be more of a message that expresses the

terrorists' antagonistic feelings toward what the U.S. symbolizes culturally, rather

than how the U.S. has involved itself in Mideast affairs," Shimada

reckoned.

The scholar said that the attacks reflect the dramatic socioeconomic

changes in the Middle East over the past decades and the trend toward

globalization, which likely caused a sense of loss of traditions and identity among

people in the region.

"In an era of dynamic social changes, people, especially serious

students with ideals, tend to be concerned about their country's future. They

worry whether their countries are heading in the right direction," he said.

"For the (Sept. 11) terrorists, I think economic growth and

globalization appeared to be a threat to their traditions. Then, the U.S. -- an icon

of capitalism -- became their target," he observed, adding that Aum also

had strong antipathy toward the U.S.

During the 1960s and 1970s, when Japan experienced rapid economic

growth, students actively engaged in political radicalism, possibly out of

similar frustration that something was wrong with the country, he said.

"With the collapse of the Soviet Union, religious fundamentalism and

other forms of extremism replaced political idealism in the minds of some

students," he said.

One of the highly educated men reported as being responsible for the

terror attacks is Mohammed Atta, an Egyptian-born architect who is believed to

have flown American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.

Osama bin Laden and other top members of al-Qaeda, the terrorist

organization accused of sponsoring the attacks, are also said to be

elite intellectuals from relatively developed countries in the Middle East.

Likewise, many of Aum's top figures, who played active roles in the

cult's criminal acts, received high-level education in Japan.

But why lean toward religion?

Shimada said one reason is the diversification of values that occurs as

society loses a single, absolute identity.

"It has become increasingly rare for material success to be embraced by

intellectuals as their prime objective in life," he said.

"Likewise, a country's economic development, in which the young elite

often play a central role, no longer seems to be everything, given the many

social problems that surface when striving for economic growth."

That in turn generates profound apathy toward society, a sort of

identity crisis that can often turn people's eyes to the spiritual world,

including religion, Shimada said.

"For those who joined Aum or al-Qaeda, religious fundamentalism, which

encourages an opposite lifestyle from that of mainstream society, most

effectively filled the void in their minds," he said.

He pointed out that increasing interest in occultism and the spiritual

world among the younger generation in Japan also symbolizes their

dissatisfaction with materialism.

Islamic fundamentalists and Aum members also have in common their

material and sexual stoicism, claimed Shimada, which he explained is naturally

embraced after stoking their hatred toward a mainstream culture that

encourages materialistic values.

"The key to understanding the violent nature of terrorists is such

stoicism. It justifies the hatred, and even violence, they direct at what they

think is a 'rotten' society," he said, noting stoicism alone can aggravate

their frustration to a level that might spark violent action.

Shimada believes today's society has failed to establish a new paradigm

that effectively connects traditional values and modern culture.

"An effort to establish systematic thought, for instance, to tell good

from evil, lags behind the ongoing dynamic social changes brought about by

global capitalism," he figured.

"This leaves apathy or a sense of identity loss among people, which can

easily be replaced by religious and other forms of extremism."

_______________________

Trial opens for Russian Aum cult members

by Anatoly Medetsky ("Vladivostok News," December 6, 2001)

Five Russian adherents of the Aum Shinrikyo cult went on trial Wednesday

on charges of planning to conduct bomb attacks in Japanese cities to force

authorities to free the cult's leader.

The group planned to issue the demand for cult leader Shoko Asahara's

release just before the Group of Eight summit on Okinawa on July 21-23,

2000. According to the prosecution they had hoped the international

spotlight and the threat of bombings would bring a quick response.

Three group members were arrested on July 1, 2000, one was arrested

earlier this year and one more at an unspecified date.

Asahara is being tried in Japan on charges of murder and attempted

murder for allegedly ordering the March 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo

subway, in which 12 people died and some 5,000 were sickened. Seven members of

his cult have been convicted in the attack, in which members entered subway

trains at rush hour and punctured bags filled with sarin nerve gas.

The cult gained a number of Russian followers when it was registered in

the country from 1992 to 1994. It was later outlawed, but some of the more

fanatic adherents kept in contact with one another and continued

practicing the cult's teachings.

As a Vladivostok judge read the full indictment against the five

suspects at the trial's opening Wednesday, Dmitry Sigachev, their leader, closed his

eyes at times as if meditating, becoming agitated only when he heard

Asahara's name mispronounced. He loudly interjected with a correction.

The indictment said the Russian adherents had conspired to plant bombs

in several previously scouted, busy locations in Japan.

The spots in Tokyo included a gas cylinder warehouse, an apartment

building, two stores, a hotel, a major highway intersection, an overpass and the

area around a subway station. In another Japanese city, Aomori, their target

was a 15-story tourism and trade center.

The indictment said that bombs, four pistols, an assault rifle and other

weapons were to have been smuggled to Japan out of Vladivostok. Sigachev

was to e-mail the demands to the Japanese prime minister from an

Internet-cafe in Japan and trigger the bombs if the demands were not met.

If released, Asahara was to have been taken by boat to a small town in

the region of Vladivostok where the group had purchased an apartment.

The prosecution said Sigachev had received $120,000 from a Japanese cult

member at secret meetings in Vienna, Austria, and on Bali Island in

Indonesia in 1999. He smuggled the money back into Russia, it said.

According to the indictment, Sigachev told the Japanese cult member that

he needed the money to publish the cult's literature and continue

preaching.

The suspects caught the attention of security agents after three of them

moved from Moscow to Vladivostok in early 2000 and bought weapons and

explosives, sparking reports by informers and months of surveillance.

Two local residents, car tire dealers, joined the group in Vladivostok.

Sigachev and his two closest assistants were handcuffed as police

escorted them into the courtroom and placed them in a special cage Wednesday. One

suspect is free on his own recognizance not to leave Vladivostok and

another is at hospital for a medical examination. If convicted, the defendants

face up to 20 years in prison.

_______________________

AUM members planned terror attack near Imperial Palace

(Kyodo News Service, Dec. 5, 2001) 

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia--Four Russian followers of the AUM Shinrikyo

religious cult admitted at the first hearing of their trial in

Vladivostok on Wednesday that they planned to set off bombs near the

Imperial Palace in Tokyo as well as in the cities of Sapporo and Aomori.

Dmitry Sigachev and three other AUM followers planned the attacks to try

to free AUM guru Shoko Asahara, Russian security authorities said. AUM

stands accused of being responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas

attack.

The four prepared explosives in late 1999 in Vladivostok, the

authorities said.

In Tokyo, they planned bombings near the Imperial Palace and the Tokyo

Detention House, where Asahara is imprisoned, the authorities said. The

four also planned to set off bombs at a station and a hotel in Sapporo,

as well as a tourist center in Aomori, they said.

Sigachev came to Japan in March last year and dropped plans to target

the Imperial Palace and the Diet due to tight security, according to

Russian security investigations. He also checked security around the

detention house in Katsushika Ward and found there were few people

strolling around the area at night.

The four planned to demand that the Japanese government hand Asahara

over to them so that they could take him to a coastal region, according

to the authorities. The suspects also prepared a threatening letter

addressed to then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the authorities said.

The four and others convened an international gathering of AUM followers

in Prague in the spring of 2000. During the parley, one of Asahara's

daughters, in a prerecorded video, pleaded with the Russians to abandon

their planned terrorist attacks on Japan, the Russian authorities said.

The four also traveled to Vienna and Bali and received $30,000 and 9

million yen from a man identifying himself as ''Ichiro Ishii,'' the

authorities said.

The four were arrested by Russian authorities in July last year.

AUM founder Asahara and a number of other members of AUM, which now

calls itself Aleph, have been tried for the Tokyo subway attack in which

12 people were killed and thousands injured, as well as for a number of

other crimes.

_______________________

Russian members of Japan's Aum sect go on trial

by Oleg Zhunusov (Reuters, December 5, 2001)

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Five Russian members of Japan's AumShinrikyo doomsday sect accused of plotting to free imprisoned cult leader

Shoko Asahara, went on trial in Russia's Pacific coast port of Vladivostok on Wednesday.

 Russia's FSB domestic security service said the men, who appeared in a metal cage as is the practice in Russian courts, had gathered weapons and explosives to blackmail the Japanese government into freeing the Aum leader.

Asahara has been on trial for six years on charges of organising a 1995 nerve-gas attack in the Tokyo subway in which 12 people died and thousands were hurt.

"Had the Japanese government not agreed to their ultimatum to free Shoko Asahara, they had planned explosions to take place immediately in several Japanese cities," an FSB official told Reuters.

Dmitry Sigachyov, leader of the Russian group, told reporters ahead of the trial that he intended to plead guilty, but no pleas were entered on the opening day.

Russian news agencies said the accused, charged with terrorism, illegal possession of arms and smuggling, could face from five to 20 years in prison.

Aum Shinrikyo was one of several cults that attracted a large following in the former Soviet Union in the turmoil that followed the collapse of communism in the 1990s.

Founded in 1993, the Russian branch of the sect ran half a dozen centres in Moscow and claimed 30,000 followers -- three times more than in Japan --before it was banned by Moscow courts in 1995. Cult followers have denied any wrongdoing.

The FSB tracked down the Vladivostok group after an Interior Ministry operation uncovered an internet site seeking "a specialist able to make explosives to go off at a set time".

Investigators later established the group was preparing explosive devices that could be detonated from anywhere in the world, using mobile telephones.

Among the targets was a site 250 metres (yards) from the prison where Asahara was being held, and the busy Ueno park in central Tokyo.

Sigachyov had planned to fly legally to Japan to oversee the attacks, while the rest of the team would bring weapons into the country illicitly by power boat.

Sigachyov and two co-defendants, Boris Tupeiko and Dmitry Voronov, are being held in custody while a fourth, Alexander Shevchenko, was told not to leave

Vladivostok. A fifth cult member, Alexei Yorchuk, was certified insane, a court official said. It was not yet clear whether he would stand trial.

In a bid to project a new image, Aum Shinrikyo changed its name to Aleph --the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- in January 2000.

_______________________

U.S. freezes Aum Shinrikyo's assets

("The Japan Times," November 4, 2001)

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. administration on Friday added 22 groups,
including Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult, to a list of foreign terrorist
organizations whose assets in the United States have been frozen.
"Listing these organizations under the Sept. 24 terrorist financing
executive order underscores the administration's objectives to disrupt the
financial base of terrorists," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The executive order, signed by President George W. Bush, enabled the
administration to freeze the assets of designated terrorist groups in the
U.S.

The administration can also freeze assets or close branches if foreign
financial institutions operating in the U.S. do not comply with the
executive order.

The 22 entities include the Real IRA, an offshoot of the Irish Republican
Army, and Islamic fundamentalist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in
addition to Aum, which carried out a fatal sarin nerve gas attack on the
Tokyo subway in 1995.

The 22 are all on a list of 28 foreign terrorist organizations issued Oct. 5
by the State Department.

Six entities, including the al-Qaeda network led by Osama bin Laden, the
suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., had
already been subject to the asset freeze.

_______________________

Asahara's lawyers request 1-yr hiatus

(Yomiuri Shimbun, October 21, 2001)

Defense lawyers for the founder of the Aum Supreme Truth cult have requested
that the Tokyo District Court adjourn the trial for a year to give them time
to prepare their defense, judicial sources said Saturday.

The defense team said the adjournment is required to allow them to build a
defense and select witnesses to appear for Chizuo Matsumoto, 46, who is also
known as Shoko Asahara.

Prosecutors said the demand was "totally unacceptable."

The district court is unlikely to accept the adjournment request before
Matsumoto's defense lawyers begin examining evidence and witnesses, the
sources said.

The prosecution is not likely to finish presenting its case until the end of
the year at the earliest. When it does, it will be the turn of the defense
team, something that will be a focus of public attention.

According to the sources, Matsumoto's lawyers presented their request at a
meeting with the district court judges and prosecutors earlier this month.

The defense team says it has not been able to have adequate communication
with Matsumoto because he has frequently failed to turn up for meetings at
an
interview room at Tokyo Detention House, and when he did, he refused to
answer their questions.

Therefore, the lawyers have had difficulty in compiling a defense strategy
and in selecting witnesses.

About 5-1/2 years have passed since the trial began.

On Oct. 4, prosecutors questioned Seiichi Endo, 41, a former leading member
of the cult, about the sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system,
completing their questioning regarding the facts in criminal charges brought
against Matsumoto.

_______________________

Aum bio-attacks opened Pandora's box

by Akihiko Misawa ("Daily Yomiuri," October 26, 2001)

Among the items found in the New Jersey apartment of one of the men
suspected of taking part in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United
States was a copy of a U.S. weekly magazine that featured a report on the
1995 sarin nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system, according to a
recent press report.

This news comes on top of the rash of incidents involving anthrax-tainted
mail in the United States.

On Oct. 5, an American woman who was a passenger aboard one of the Tokyo
trains attacked with sarin nerve gas described her harrowing experience at a
U.S. House of Representatives hearing.

The Aum Supreme Truth cult, which is responsible for the sarin gas attacks,
is one of 28 groups mentioned on a list of foreign terrorist organizations
kept by the U.S. State Department.

The list, released Oct. 5, is updated every two years. The Japanese Red
Army, a group that shook the world with its radical antiestablishment
violence, has been taken off the list, but the Aum Supreme Truth cult
remains on it.

This means that Aum, in the eyes of the U.S. government, should still be
regarded as a highly dangerous terrorist organization even after the 1995
arrest of Aum leader Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, and the
change of the name of Aum to Aleph in January 2000.

It seems that the terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden has carried out
its terrorist activities following the model of crimes committed by Aum.

Investigations have shown that Aum had plans to stage terrorist attacks
using not only chemical agents, such as sarin, VX gas and phosgene, but also
biological weapons such as anthrax and botulin.

It is natural for the United States to have been highly alarmed by Aum's
activities.

When seen from abroad, it seems difficult to understand why the cult is
still allowed to continue its activities in this country despite the spate
of appalling crimes it committed.

Aum embarked on its campaign of bioterrorism in April 1990.

In February that year, Matsumoto and other high-ranking members of the cult
had all been soundly defeated in a general election and were on the verge of
losing the support of cult adherents.

It was later reported that Matsumoto around that time drew in his horns for
the first time, telling his associates it might be advisable to disband the
cult.

It was the idea of resorting to bioterrorism that resuscitated Aum.

As part of his bioterrorism strategy, Matsumoto claimed to be a prophet at
an Aum-sponsored seminar on Ishigakijima island, Okinawa Prefecture, telling
those attending the seminar that there would be a horrific incident in Japan
in the near future.

He went on to say that the only way they could survive was to join Aum and
donate all their money and possessions to the cult.

To fulfill Matsumoto's prophecy of armageddon, Aum leaders spread botulinus
bacilli in the area around the Diet building.

In 1992, the cult began culturing anthrax. The following year it spread the
bacteria in an area in Tokyo, apparently with the aim of killing a large
number of people.

Both the botulin and anthrax offensives ended in failure, since the cult was
unaware that it had made nontoxic varieties that were used for cattle
vaccination purposes.

Aum subsequently shifted to chemical weapons and began manufacturing sarin.

However, the cult did not abandon the idea of using biological weapons.

Immediately before the sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway system in March
1995, Aum members set up a timed device to sprinkle botulinus bacilli in the
compound of the Kasumigaseki subway station, located near a large number of
central government ministries and agencies. This plan failed because the
timer on the device malfunctioned.

While the outcome of these attempts was not what the group expected, Aum was
the first nongovernmental organization in the world to have employed
bacilli, viruses and lethal chemicals for terrorist purposes.

The Aum incidents prompted many countries to address the threat posed by
terrorist use of biological and chemical weapons by stockpiling vaccines and
antibiotics, improving steps to counter biological weapons and taking other
measures.

Japan, however, was markedly slow in taking such action.

Legislation was passed shortly after the Aum incidents, placing a ban on
production, possession and use of sarin and other chemical weapons.

However, there is no law even today to prohibit the use of biological
weapons.

At the time of the spread of anthrax by Aum members, prosecutors were unable
to investigate the case because of the absence of an antibioterrorist law.

In addition, the government has done little since the Aum attacks to prevent
another bioterrorist assault or to improve crisis-management systems in the
event of such an occurrence.

Imagine what would have happened if the anthrax Aum made had been a highly
toxic strain of the disease, instead of a harmless cattle vaccine.

We must face up to the fact that we ignored the potential gravity of Aum
culturing anthrax until the outbreak of anthrax-laced mail in the United
States.

Though somewhat slower off the mark than other countries, the government now
is working all-out to put bioterrorist countermeasures in place.

However, it is still uncertain whether a medical institution, should it
detect a case of infection caused by bioterrorism, would be able to convey
the information accurately and without delay to law-enforcement authorities.

Furthermore, nobody knows exactly how many doctors in this country are
capable of promptly making a diagnosis and treating such diseases as anthrax
and smallpox.

Clearly, Aum opened a Pandora's box of bioterrorism six years ago, and the
result has been tragic for the United States.

The Japanese have spent the past six years unaware of what the Aum incidents
really meant, or pretending to be unaware of the potential threats involved.

Under the circumstances, no time should be wasted in readying ourselves to
face up to the challenges of bioterrorism and chemical weapons.

We must not forget the terror and sense of crisis we had at the time of
Aum's sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway system.

Misawa is a deputy editor of the city news department of The Yomiuri
Shimbun.

_______________________

Japan still hasn't learned from Aum anthrax attempt

by Linda Sieg ("Japan Today," October 13, 2001)

TOKYO: Japan got a wake-up call nearly a decade ago to the threat of
assaults using biological weapons against civilians when a doomsday cult
tried to make their prophecies of Armageddon come true by dispersing
anthrax.

Even so, experts say that Japanese officials failed to learn the lessons of
the botched attempt by the Aum Supreme Truth cult.

"It is impossible to totally prevent such attacks ... but you can limit the
impact," said Keiichi Tsuneishi, an expert on bio-terrorism at Kanagawa
University.

"But in Japan, there is no overall system to deal with this."

Experts have been warning of the possibility of chemical or biological
assaults for years, but concerns have mounted since the devastating Sept 11
attacks in America and the U.S.-led retaliation in Afghanistan.

In Florida, an employee of a publishing company died on Friday from exposure
to anthrax and two more have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

The probe into the infection is now being handled as a criminal
investigation, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The Aum cult made horrific history in March 1995 when its members released
the deadly nerve gas sarin on crowded subways in Tokyo, killing 12 people
and making nearly 6,000 ill.

What attracted rather less attention was the fact that Aum cult members had
two years earlier sprayed anthrax into the air above their Tokyo
headquarters.
The fact that it was a harmless strain designed to be used as a vaccine for
cattle prevented a disaster from occurring, Tsuneishi said.

"There were complaints from those living nearby about a strange smell," he
said. "If this had been a strain from which a bio-weapon could be made, it
would have been far more serious."

PERFECT WEAPON

Officials at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases, who received
a sample of the anthrax bacteria used by Aum after police raids in 1995,
declined to comment.

But Northern Arizona University researcher, Paul Keim, who also obtained a
sample, said the anthrax strain was a harmless one imported from the United
States and designed for use as a vaccine for cattle, the Daily Yomiuri
newspaper reported.

Anthrax has long been known as a disease of farm animals, and in its most
common form 8212; a skin infection 8212; is not especially lethal.

But the bacteria that causes anthrax can form spores, which can be sprayed
by something like a crop-dusting plane or released by a home-made aerosol.

Some experts have cited Aum's botched attempt as pointing to the
difficulties of executing successful biological attacks.

"If Aum had taken more time and been more proficient it might have killed
thousands or even tens of thousands," said an article which appeared in
Jane's Intelligence Weekly in June 1999.

"In short, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons are harder for
terrorists to obtain and to make than some reports would suggest," the article said.

TIGHTER CHECKS

Jolted into action by the Sept 11 attacks and the Florida anthrax cases,
Japanese ministries have begun ordering research institutes to check up on
the dangerous bacteria or viruses they possess, report on steps they are
taking to control them, and tighten security as needed.

Tsuneishi said, however, that better coordination among ministries was
essential, as was raising the consciousness of researchers themselves about
potential for theft by terrorists.

In a display apparently intended to demonstrate preparedness, a
counter-terrorism police unit recently enacted a drill before television
cameras.

The unit was set up last year and has been doubled to 20 members following
last month's attacks.

Japan's military, however, has been slow to boost readiness for possible
biological attacks, in part due to the legacy of the Imperial Army's
top-secret Unit 731, which conducted biological experiments on Chinese,
Korean and Russian prisoners of war during World War II, analysts say.

"In general, the capacity to cope is very limited," defence expert Tomohisa
Sakanaka told Reuters recently. "It has been thought that for the military
even to do research on such things is itself dangerous...We have learned too
much from history." (Reuters News)

_______________________

Suita ordered to register Aum residents

("Yomiuri Shimbun," October 13, 2001)

The Osaka District Court on Friday ordered the Suita municipal government in
Osaka prefecture and Mayor Yoshio Sakaguchi to accept residence
registrations
of two followers of the Aum Supreme Truth cult and pay them a total of
400,000 yen in compensation for refusing to register them as residents.

Five similar cases have been brought into court by Aum members in
Sanwamachi,
Ibaraki Prefecture, Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, and other places since the cult
carried out its sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in March, 1995.
Friday's ruling was the first.

Presiding Judge Jun Miura said in his ruling, "According to the Basic
Resident Registers Law, heads of villages, towns and cities retain no rights
to reject residence registrations claiming that residents are assumed to
pose
threats to others. Therefore, their position was illegal."

The two cultists moved into Aum's Osaka branch in Suita around June, 2000,
and submitted residence registration forms to the municipal government on
July 11, 2000. However, a city official in charge of the registration
rejected their forms saying they posed a potential threat to public welfare.

_______________________

Japan Aum Cult's Anthrax Attempt Was Wake-Up Call

by Linda Sieg (Reuters, Oct. 11, 2001)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan got a wake-up call nearly a decade ago to the threat
of assaults using biological weapons against civilians when a doomsday cult
tried to make their prophecies of Armageddon come true by dispersing
anthrax.

Even so, experts say that Japanese officials failed to learn the lessons of
the botched attempt by the Aum Supreme Truth cult.

``It is impossible to totally prevent such attacks ... but you can limit the
impact,'' said Keiichi Tsuneishi, an expert on bio-terrorism at Kanagawa
University.

``But in Japan, there is no overall system to deal with this.''

Experts have been warning of the possibility of chemical or biological
assaults for years, but concerns have mounted since the devastating
September 11 attacks in America and the U.S.-led retaliation in Afghanistan
(news - web sites).

In Florida, an employee of a publishing company died on Friday from exposure
to anthrax and two more have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

The probe into the infection is now being handled as a criminal
investigation, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Japan's Aum cult made horrific history in March 1995 when its members
released the deadly nerve gas sarin on crowded subways in Tokyo, killing 12
people and making nearly 6,000 ill.

What attracted rather less attention was the fact that Aum cult members had
two years earlier sprayed anthrax into the air above their Tokyo
headquarters.

The fact that it was a harmless strain designed to be used as a vaccine for
cattle prevented a disaster from occurring, Tsuneishi said.

``There were complaints from those living nearby about a strange smell,'' he
said. ``If this had been a strain from which a bio-weapon could be made, it
would have been far more serious.''

PERFECT WEAPON

Officials at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases, who received
a sample of the anthrax bacteria used by Aum after police raids in 1995,
declined to comment.

But Northern Arizona University researcher, Paul Keim, who also obtained a
sample, said the anthrax strain was a harmless one imported from the United
States and designed for use as a vaccine for cattle, the Daily Yomiuri
newspaper reported.

Anthrax has long been known as a disease of farm animals, and in its most
common form -- a skin infection -- is not especially lethal.

But the bacteria that causes anthrax can form spores, which can be sprayed
by something like a crop-dusting plane or released by a home-made aerosol.

Some experts have cited Aum's botched attempt as pointing to the
difficulties of executing successful biological attacks.

``If Aum had taken more time and been more proficient it might have killed
thousands or even tens of thousands,'' said an article which appeared in
Jane's Intelligence Weekly in June 1999.

``In short, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons are harder for
terrorists to obtain and to make than some reports would suggest,'' the
article said.

TIGHTER CHECKS

Jolted into action by the September 11 attacks and the Florida anthrax
cases, Japanese ministries have begun ordering research institutes to check
up on the dangerous bacteria or viruses they possess, report on steps they
are taking to control them, and tighten security as needed.

Tsuneishi said, however, that better coordination among ministries was
essential, as was raising the consciousness of researchers themselves about
potential for theft by terrorists.

In a display apparently intended to demonstrate preparedness, a
counter-terrorism police unit on Wednesday enacted a drill before television
cameras.

The unit was set up last year and has been doubled to 20 members following
last month's attacks.

Japan's military, however, has been slow to boost readiness for possible
biological attacks, in part due to the legacy of the Imperial Army's
top-secret Unit 731, which conducted biological experiments on Chinese,
Korean and Russian prisoners of war during World War Two, analysts say.

``In general, the capacity to cope is very limited,'' defense expert
Tomohisa Sakanaka told Reuters recently. ``It has been thought that for the
military even to do research on such things is itself dangerous...We have
learned too much from history.''

_______________________

Japanese Red Army dropped from U.S. terrorist list, Aum added

 (Kyodo News Service, Oct. 5, 2001)  

  WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (Kyodo) - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday redesignated 

25 groups, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and Japan's AUM Shinrikyo cult, 

as terrorist groups while dropping the Japanese Red Army from the list. 

	Most of the 25 redesignated groups ''have carried out murderous attacks on innocent people 

since their last designation in 1999,'' Powell said in a statement. 

They include Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in addition to al-Qaida led by 

bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. 

Commenting on the removal of the Japanese Red Army from the list, Powell said, ''We have maintained 

close watch and exchanged information with other concerned countries, but we have not received 

sufficient information during the past two years to justify designation.'' 

	Also dropped from the list is the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a Peruvian group involved in 

the 1996-1997 hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's resident in Lima. 

The U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations is reviewed every two years. 

Under a 1996 law, U.S. citizens are prohibited from providing listed organizations with assistance and 

U.S. financial institutions must freeze their assets. 

	Three groups were added to the list during the past two years, bringing the total to 28. 

The three are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia 

and the Real IRA, an offshoot of the Irish Republican Army. 

_______________________

Guru doesn't appeal sarin redress

("The Japan Times," August 10, 2001)

A Tokyo District Court ruling ordering Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara to 
pay about 464 million yen to relatives of victims of a sarin gas attack in 
Nagano Prefecture in 1994 became final Thursday after the appeals deadline 
passed Wednesday midnight with no challenges.
On July 25, the court ordered Asahara to pay the damages to eight relatives 
of four victims of the June 1994 attack in Matsumoto. The plaintiffs had 
filed the 545 million yen damages suit in August 1995.

The court acknowledged that considering evidence and testimony from former 
senior members of the cult, the attack was planned and organized under 
Asahara's instructions and carried out by his followers.

Seven people were killed and 144 injured in the gassing, which was 
perpetrated at around 10:40 p.m. on June 27, 1994. 

_______________________

Death cult boss ruling final

("Japan Today August 9, 2001)

TOKYO:   A Tokyo District Court ruling ordering AUM Shinrikyo cult founder 
Shoko Asahara to pay about 464 million yen to kin of victims of a sarin gas 
attack in Nagano Prefecture became final Thursday as the appeals deadline 
passed midnight Wednesday with no challenges.

On July 25, the court ordered Asahara to pay the damages to eight relatives 
of four victims of the June 1994 attack in Matsumoto in the central Japan 
prefecture. The plaintiffs had filed the 545 million yen damages suit in 
August 1995. (Kyodo News)

_______________________

Asahara ordered to pay 464 mil. yen over sarin attack

(Kyodo News Service, July 25, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, July 25 (Kyodo) The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered AUM 
Shinrikyo religious cult founder Shoko Asahara to pay about 464 million yen 
in compensation to eight relatives of four victims of a June 1994 sarin gas 
attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 

In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Kazuo Ichimiya said Asahara 
''sufficiently acknowledged the lethality of sarin and conducted the crime 
with the intention of murdering many residents in the neighborhood.'' 

The plaintiffs filed the 545 million yen damages suit in August 1995, about 
one year after the attack. But proceedings were suspended for nearly four 
years after the court decided in December 1996 to observe the proceedings of 
Asahara's trial on criminal charges. 

Considering evidence and testimony from former senior cult members, Ichimiya 
ruled the attack was a planned and organized crime under Asahara's 
instructions and carried out by cult members. The court decided in February 
this year not to put Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, on the 
stand, believing the leader would not testify voluntarily. 

Seven people were killed and 144 others injured in the gas attack on the 
central Japan city at around 10:40 p.m. on June 27, 1994. The crime is 
believed to have been carried out in connection with a separate civil suit in 
which the cult was trying to obtain land in Matsumoto to establish an AUM 
Shinrikyo branch. 

Fearing an unfavorable ruling, the cult released sarin gas near the home of 
the presiding judge. The attack was allegedly also organized by Asahara to 
test the effectiveness of sarin, which was later used in an attack on the 
Tokyo subway system. 

''Defendant (Asahara) had absolute power within the cult and planned the 
murder of the judge with a sense of crisis on the ruling at the Nagano 
District Court's Matsumoto branch,'' Ichimiya said. 

Asahara has been ordered to pay more than 2.5 billion yen in compensation in 
connection with cases allegedly committed by the cult throughout the country, 
but has no funds and therefore payment is considered unlikely. 

In this case, the judge awarded less compensation than the plaintiffs had 
originally asked for because they had already received payments from a 
court-appointed trustee in the cult's bankruptcy. 

In March 1998, the plaintiffs and the cult reached a settlement in which the 
cult agreed to pay about 510 million yen in compensation. 

In June 1996, the plaintiffs sued nine other cult members allegedly involved 
in the 1994 gas attack. The nine were ordered to pay a total of 100 million 
yen in damages to the plaintiffs. However, it is said that none of the 
payments have been made. 

Asahara has been indicted on 13 criminal charges, including those related to 
a 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system which left 12 people dead 
and injured thousands.  

_______________________

AUM Nagoya branch to move to inner city

Kyodo News Service, July 24, 2001)  
  

NAGOYA, July 24 (Kyodo) - The Nagoya branch of AUM Shinrikyo is preparing to 
move to new premises in the center of Nagoya that may become the cult's new 
headquarters for central Japan, the police said Monday. 

The branch plans to move to a four-story building in Naka Ward, renting rooms 
on the second and third floors with total floor space of about 200 square 
meters, police officials said, adding that cult members have been preparing 
the rooms since the middle of this month. 

The building is owned by a company in Nishi Ward but rented out to a real 
estate company in Chuo Ward that sublets it. 

The president of the company which owns the building told Kyodo News he is 
aware the cult may move into the building but that sublets are left to the 
real estate company. 

The real estate company declined to comment on the issue. 

The AUM branch currently occupies a building in Nagoya's Nishi Ward. It 
vacated the building once before in December 1999 but returned in August last 
year after promising the landlord it would stop holding religious seminars 
there. 

However, religious activities continued and AUM followers have frequented the 
building, according to investigators. 

The landlord notified the cult it would have to leave the building when the 
contract expires July 31 after local residents demanded the cult to move out 
of the area, the police said. 

_______________________

Aum cult case moves to trial stage

by Anatoly Medetsky  ("Vladivostok News," July 20, 2001)

Russian security agents have arrested the last of four suspects accused of 
planning explosions in Japan to demand freedom for the leader of the cult 
responsible for the fatal 1995 gas attack in the Tokyo subway.

Alexei Yurchuk was detained on July 13, just days after investigators had 
completed building a case against three other members of the group, a 
statement from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said Monday.

The case, sent to court earlier this month, says that the Russians were 
adepts of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult founded by now-jailed Shoko 
Asahara. They allegedly planned to demand Asahara's release just before last 
year's summit of the heads of the leading industrial powers in Japan. The 
group hoped that the international spotlight and the threat of bombings would 
make the nation more responsive. 

According to excerpts of the case televised on the national ORT channel, the 
fanatics stockpiled bombs and weapons, arranged to enter Japan as tourists 
and sailors and even chose target cities - Tokyo, Aomori and Sapporo. But 
arrests thwarted their plans three weeks before the July 21-23, 2000 summit.

Agents of Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, apprehended the three 
members, including the leader, in the Pacific port of Vladivostok on July 1. 
The fourth member managed to escape then.

The FSB said Dmitry Sigachev, who led the group, obtained dlrs 100,000 to 
finance their conspiracy from one of the Japanese chiefs of the outlawed 
cult. He then traveled to Japan twice to film and photograph potential sites 
for planting bombs.

"We will make a short tour to the seaside and you will see the nature of 
Japan as well as wonderful places that will undoubtedly make history, with 
our help," Sigachev said, grinning in footage that the FSB said it had seized.

The potential bombing sites included congested highways, crowded streets and 
even a kindergarten where canisters of propane gas are stored outside.

In one of the seized photographs, Sigachev poses before a fence at Asahara's 
prison in Tokyo.

"The Teacher is behind this wall as yet. Nothing is indefinite," he wrote on 
the reverse side. 

According to the ultimatum that the group planned to email to then Japan 
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, it wanted the release of not only Asahara, but 
also his son and one of Asahara's followers, all of whom "present an 
exceptional value for all progressive humankind." The potential terrorists 
also wanted dlrs 10 million in cash.

"Otherwise, our battle group deployed on the territory of Japan will embark 
on the systematic and cruel extermination of Japanese and foreign citizens, 
without distinction between men, women, old people and children," the 
ultimatum threatened.

Boris Tupeiko, one of the suspects, said in a filmed interrogation that 
members of the group were to "take the explosives and deliver them to three 
locations in the cities." After making the demands, they were to "blow them 
up if the demands are not fulfilled," he said.

Upon release, Asahara would have been taken by boat to one of the small towns 
around Vladivostok where he would have hidden out in an apartment that the 
group had rented.

The group caught the FSB's attention when members from Moscow arrived in 
Vladivostok at the start of the last year. Although they had some explosives 
and weapons, they decided to buy more, and informers alerted the security 
agency.

After nearly a half-year of surveillance, agents raided a garage rented by 
the group and seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle, six grenades, four pistols, 
more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and homemade bombs. The bombs had 
dynamite charges at the core and were filled with nails and screws wrapped 
with tape.

Two members of the group were to take jobs as sailors on a cargo ship bound 
for Japan and smuggle the guns and ammunition in punching bags and stereo 
systems.

The FSB filed charges including illegal possession of arms and illegal 
manufacture of explosives, but has not reported the length of prison terms 
the group would face if convicted. 

Asahara, whose Aum cult preached that the world was coming to an end, 
masterminded the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack that killed 12 and made 6000 
ill. 

_______________________

In Maritime Territory Staffers of Russian Secret Service Detained Member of 
AUM Shinrikyo Sect

("Pravda," July 16, 2001)

The staffers of the Maritime administration of the Federal Security Service 
(FSB) of Russia have detained a member of the Aum Shinrikyo sect. As RIA 
Novosti was told in the FSB regional administration on Monday, detenu Alexei 
Yurchuk was on the federal wanted list. 
According to the FSB staffers' information, three other members of this 
extremist religious organisation were detained in the Maritime (Primorye) 
Territory (the Russian Far East) earlier. As it was found out in the course 
of the investigation, these sectarians were militants who intended to 
penetrate into Japan. 
The materials of the criminal case, opened against them, have now been 
submitted to the Territorial court. 
In expert opinion, in the Maritime Territory there is no operating staff or 
centre belonging to the sect. All the sectarians, detained in the Territory, 
came here from the central regions of the country.

_______________________

Police find AUM founder Asahara's picture in Joyu's room

(Kyodo News Service, July 3, 2001)
 
TOKYO, July 3 (Kyodo) - Investigators found a picture of AUM Shinrikyo
founder Shoko Asahara in the apartment of Fumihiro Joyu, the cult's leading
member, during a police raid Tuesday on the apartment in Tokyo's Setagaya
Ward, the police said.

According to the police, Joyu's apartment is the religious group's de facto
headquarters and the raid was carried out in connection with an AUM member's
suspected false residence registration with the Sumida Ward office.

The police said the finding of the picture of Asahara indicates that Joyu,
38, and other AUM members still worship the founder, who is being tried on a
number of charges, including the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo
subway system which killed 12 people and injured thousands.

Joyu told investigators that he uses the picture for religious seminars, the
police said.

Under new rules of the religious group, which now calls itself Aleph,
pictures of Asahara, 46, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, should not be
put up at altars and other places.

The group's regulations on Asahara say, ''We do not deify him or see him as
absolute as to justify the crimes. But we purely evaluate and succeed to the
religious components.''

In the police search of nine locations, some 1,700 videocassettes were found,
including ones containing sermons by Asahara, the police said.

According to the police, a 38-year-old AUM member submitted to the Sumida
Ward Office a false residence registration on March 22, maintaining that he
had moved to an apartment in the ward from Ishikawa Prefecture, even though
he does not live in the apartment.

The police said the cult is probably involved in the case because it
instructs followers to inform it whenever they transfer their residence
registry. 

_______________________

AUM stockpiles 100s of guru's killer videos

("Mainichi Shimbun," July 3, 2001) 

Hundreds of videos featuring AUM Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara advocating 
murder as a religious belief have been seized from a member of the 
doomsday cult, police said Tuesday. 

Public safety authorities believe that Asahara -- detained in the Tokyo 
Detention Center while his mass-murder trial remains in session -- retains 
enormous influence over AUM followers and have pledged to keep a close 
watch on the cult. AUM has publicly announced it has disavowed the teachings of Asahara, the 
suspected mastermind of the 1995 lethal gas attack on the Tokyo subway 
system, but public safety officials dispute the claim. 

"When the guru says, 'kill that,' it's time has come," Asahara says in the 
terrifying video. "When an acolyte kills, the victim has been ritually 
murdered. That is the best time to kill." 

The cult has claimed that all materials relating to the murderous teaching 
have been destroyed. 

Police said 1,700 videos and cassette tapes were seized after a raid on an 
apartment in Sumida-ku, Tokyo, following a false report from a male member 
of the cult that he had moved into the abode, but had not actually done so. 
It is believed the Sumida-ku apartment was used by the cult as a storage area 
for videos. It was raided after a cult member tried to register it as an 
official address in an attempt to claim unemployment benefits. 

A spokesman for AUM, now calls itself Aleph, argued that the killer videos 
are not used in their current training. 

"We kept the videos at the room to check whether they are suitable for 
teachings of Aleph. If they are not, they will be destroyed," the 
spokesman said. 

_______________________

Police find AUM founder Asahara's picture in Joyu's room

.(Kyodo News Service, July 3, 2001)
 
TOKYO, July 3 (Kyodo) - Investigators found a picture of AUM Shinrikyo
founder Shoko Asahara in the apartment of Fumihiro Joyu, the cult's leading
member, during a police raid Tuesday on the apartment in Tokyo's Setagaya
Ward, the police said.

According to the police, Joyu's apartment is the religious group's de facto
headquarters and the raid was carried out in connection with an AUM member's
suspected false residence registration with the Sumida Ward office.

The police said the finding of the picture of Asahara indicates that Joyu,
38, and other AUM members still worship the founder, who is being tried on a
number of charges, including the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo
subway system which killed 12 people and injured thousands.

Joyu told investigators that he uses the picture for religious seminars, the
police said.

Under new rules of the religious group, which now calls itself Aleph,
pictures of Asahara, 46, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, should not be
put up at altars and other places.

The group's regulations on Asahara say, ''We do not deify him or see him as
absolute as to justify the crimes. But we purely evaluate and succeed to the
religious components.''

In the police search of nine locations, some 1,700 videocassettes were found,
including ones containing sermons by Asahara, the police said.

According to the police, a 38-year-old AUM member submitted to the Sumida
Ward Office a false residence registration on March 22, maintaining that he
had moved to an apartment in the ward from Ishikawa Prefecture, even though
he does not live in the apartment.

The police said the cult is probably involved in the case because it
instructs followers to inform it whenever they transfer their residence
registry.

_______________________

Tokyo court rejects AUM request to void surveillance decision

(Kyodo News Service, June 13, 2001)  

  
TOKYO, June 13 (Kyodo) - The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday rejected a 
request by the AUM Shinrikyo cult to void a decision by the Public Security 
Examination Commission to place the sect under surveillance by security 
authorities. 

The ruling marks the first legal decision involving a December 1999 law that 
allows the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency to monitor 
any organization that has committed ''indiscriminate mass murder during the 
past 10 years,'' and lets police inspect facilities of such groups without a 
warrant. 

AUM filed the suit in February 2000, claiming there was no realistic danger 
of it committing indiscriminate mass murder and that the surveillance was 
unconstitutional. The sect plans to appeal the ruling, according to AUM 
sources. 

Police say AUM was responsible for the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the 
Tokyo subway system, which claimed the lives of 12 people and injured more 
than 5,000. 

In handing down the ruling, presiding judge Masayuki Fujiyama said, ''It is 
rational to decide to disclose the situation of activities by an organization 
that carried out indiscriminate mass murder.'' 

In rejecting AUM's request, Fujiyama said, ''If (a decision is) implemented 
only when there is real danger that preparations (for indiscriminate mass 
murder) are to restart, it does not run counter to constitutional guarantees 
such as freedom of religion.'' 

Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said the ruling is appropriate, but ample 
consideration must be given to assessing the threat of danger. 

''As the Justice Ministry, we would like to continue to make full efforts to 
resolve the anxiety of citizens about the AUM Shinrikyo cult,'' Moriyama 
said. 

Fujiyama also said the influence of AUM founder Shoko Asahara, 46, whose real 
name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is ''extremely heavy and deep'' when considering 
''the gravity of the extraordinary crime AUM committed and the fact that 
preparations were conducted secretly.'' 

''It could never be thought that (the cult) would disappear overnight or that 
it would considerably weaken,'' Fujiyama said in concluding that the decision 
to place AUM under surveillance was appropriate. 

''The cult did not make strong efforts to truly depart from the influence of 
Matsumoto and there was a possibility that (it) would begin preparations for 
indiscriminate mass murder by channeling funds for compensating victims into 
rearming itself depending on the intentions of Matsumoto,'' he added. 

But Fujiyama said there were doubts about the commission's argument that 
Matsumoto is still AUM's head and that he continues to hold dangerous 
doctrines. 

In January last year, the commission decided to allow security authorities to 
put AUM under surveillance for up to three years. 

 _______________________

Prosecutors appeal life term for ex-AUM member to high court

(Kyodo News Service, June 12, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, June 12 (Kyodo) - Prosecutors said Tuesday they have appealed to the 
Tokyo High Court the life sentence given to Noboru Nakamura, a former member 
of the AUM Shinrikyo cult, demanding he be punished with the death penalty 
for his role in a series of crimes. 

On May 30, the Tokyo District Court sentenced Nakamura, 34, to life 
imprisonment for his involvement in four incidents, including the 1994 sarin 
gas attack that killed seven people in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 

The prosecutors have demanded the death penalty, saying it is impossible for 
Nakamura to be rehabilitated. 

According to the district court ruling, Nakamura conspired with Shoko 
Asahara, 46, the AUM founder whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and served 
as a lookout in the gas attack June 27, 1994, while other AUM members 
released the gas. 

Nakamura was also involved in abducting and killing an AUM follower's 
68-year-old relative in 1995 and conspired to kill a 27-year-old AUM member 
in 1994. He took part in the construction of a sarin production plant as 
well, the ruling said.  

_______________________

AUM opens cult facilities to media

(Kyodo News Service, June 6, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, June 6 (Kyodo) - The AUM Shinrikyo cult on Wednesday opened to the 
public three of its facilities, including a training center in Tokyo's 
Suginami Ward. 

The cult said it opened the facilities to provide information on their 
activities as well as facilities in the hope of reducing anxiety lingering 
among locals and society. 

AUM spokesman Hiroshi Araki emphasized the cult's intention to make the cult 
''open,'' saying, ''We hope to make public other facilities in Osaka 
Prefecture's Suita and in the town of Sanwa in Ibaraki Prefecture within this 
month.'' 

However, public security authorities are on guard against the cult, citing 
the fact that some members continue to display photos of AUM founder Shoko 
Asahara, 46, in their rooms. 

Other than the training center and another facility in Suginami Ward, the 
cult said it opened another facility in Tokyo's Adachi Ward. A total of 54 
followers live in the three facilities. 

One of the Suginami facilities was scheduled to open at 9 a.m. However, the 
opening was delayed by about 30 minutes because dozens of ward office 
employees and local residents committed to the eviction of the cult members 
gathered at the facility and called for the cult's early pullout. 

Last month, the cult opened to the public its facilities located in apartment 
buildings in Minami-Karasuyama in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, which are believed 
to be the cult's de facto headquarters, to local residents and the media. 

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is being tried on a number of 
charges, including the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system 
which killed 12 people and injured thousands. 

AUM now calls itself Aleph. 

_______________________

Aum's Nakamura sentenced to life

("Yomiuri Shimbun," May 31, 2001) 

The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced a former member of the Aum 
Supreme Truth cult to life imprisonment for his involvement in the June 1994 
lethal sarin nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and three 
other cult-linked crimes. 

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Noboru Nakamura, 34, who 
served as the cult's self-styled deputy home affairs minister. Seven people 
died in the Matsumoto gassing. 

Cult followers killed 12 and injured more than 5,000 in the 1995 sarin attack 
on the Tokyo subway system. 

Nakamura was also implicated in the June 1994 murder of Aum follower Toshio 
Tomita, and the abduction and killing of public notary Kiyoshi Kariya in 
February 1995, according to Wednesday's ruling. 

He also helped build a sarin plant in Kamikuishikimura, Yamanashi Prefecture, 
between November 1993 and December 1994, the ruling said. 

"Although he bears grave criminal responsibility, his role in the 
crimes--with the exception of the Kariya case--was a subordinate one," Judge 
Toshio Nagai said, explaining why he did not impose the death penalty. 
"Therefore, it is inappropriate to impose a punishment that outweighs the 
seriousness of his actions." 

Nakamura is the second former Aum member to be sentenced to life imprisonment 
in the face of prosecution demands for the death penalty. The first was 
31-year-old Yoshihiro Inoue, who had been a leading member of the cult. 

Nakamura was the sixth Aum member to be handed a life sentence by the 
district court in connection with crimes committed by the cult. 

The court focused on Nakamura's role in the Matsumoto case, the most serious 
of the four crimes for which he was convicted. 

During his trial, Nakamura denied he intended to kill, claiming he did not 
realize the cult was producing sarin and that he was not aware that the gas 
was deadly. 

While the court agreed that Nakamura had been unaware that the substance 
sprayed in Matsumoto was sarin, and that prosecuters failed to prove he 
intended to commit murder, it found that he had a subconscious desire to 
kill. 

On Nakamura's role as a lookout in the Matsumoto sarin attack, the ruling 
said, "Although he did not have to kill anyone who happened to get in the way 
of the attack, he played a role in ensuring that the crime was committed as 
planned." 

_______________________

Ex-AUM member sentenced to life for nerve-gas attack

(Kyodo News Service, May 30, 2001)  

TOKYO, May 30 (Kyodo) - The Tokyo District Court sentenced to life 
imprisonment Wednesday a former member of the AUM Shinrikyo cult who took 
part in four incidents, including a 1994 nerve-gas attack that killed seven 
people in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 

Presiding Judge Toshio Nagai handed down the ruling to Noboru Nakamura, 34. 
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty. 

According to the ruling, Nakamura conspired with Shoko Asahara, 46, the AUM 
founder whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and served as a lookout in the 
sarin gas attack on June 27, 1994, as other AUM members released the gas. 

The attack targeted a condominium where judges lived. It killed seven and 
injured four nearby residents. 

Nakamura was also involved in abducting and killing an AUM follower's 
68-year-old relative in 1995 and conspired to kill a 27-year-old AUM member 
in 1994. He took part in the construction of a sarin production plant as 
well, the ruling said. 

Nakamura had admitted serving as a lookout in the 1994 gas attack. But he 
denied conspiring with Asahara and that he intended to kill anyone, saying he 
did not know sarin was a deadly gas and that other members had released the 
gas. 

Nagai said in handing down the ruling, ''Each incident was carried out under 
the order of Asahara, who was considered an absolute being in the religious 
cult, and Nakamura took the incidents as his job at the cult and did not have 
his own motivation for them.'' 

He had only ''subordinately participated'' in three incidents, including the 
Matsumoto sarin gas attack, the ruling said. 

The ruling also said it cannot be proved Nakamura knew that the gas released 
in Matsumoto was sarin and that he was aware it was deadly. The ruling added 
it is difficult to say whether Nakamura was able to predict the serious 
damage the gas caused. 

The court decided that there is great discrepancy between the action of 
Asahara, the mastermind of the crime, and Nakamura and that it cannot admit 
that capital punishment is imperative for Nakamura. 

The prosecutors had demanded the death penalty, saying it is impossible to 
reform Nakamura. They said there is a danger of Nakamura again committing 
similar crimes because he still sees Asahara as the ultimate religious leader 
and maintains AUM beliefs allowing murder. 

Nakamura's defense lawyers said imprisoning Nakamura for a fixed term is 
appropriate because he never played a leading role in any of the incidents. 

Two other former AUM members who took part in the attack in Matsumoto have 
already been sentenced. Satoru Hashimoto, 34, who drove a van equipped with a 
sprayer and fan that released the deadly gas, was sentenced to death. Takashi 
Tomita, 43, who drove a lookout van, was handed a 17-year prison term. Both 
have appealed the rulings. 

_______________________

Nerve-gas cultist gets life

(AFP, May 30, 2001)
 

Tokyo - A former member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult was sentenced to life 
imprisonment by a Tokyo court on Wednesday for crimes including taking part 
in a deadly 1994 nerve-gas attack. 

The Tokyo District Court sentenced Noboru Nakamura, 34, for murder, 
conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, and abduction leading to death, and 
illegally disposing of a body. 

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty. 

Nakamura was found guilty of conspiring with Shoko Asahara, 46, AUM's founder 
and guru whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, over the sarin gas attack on 
June 27, 1994 in the city of Matsumoto. 

The doomsday cult released the Nazi-invented Sarin gas in 1994 outside an 
apartment block housing judges in Matsumoto, central Japan. 

The fumes killed seven people and temporarily affected 144 others, some 
seriously. It was an horrific curtain raiser to the infamous March 1995 
gassing of Tokyo's subway by the same cult, which killed 12 people and 
injured thousands of other rush-hour passengers. 

"The defendant's criminal responsibility is grave as the Matsumoto sarin case 
was institutionally carried out under the supervision of (Chizuo) Matsumoto, 
which is anti-social and vicious," said presiding judge Toshio Nagai. "The 
defendant has not expressed any remorse directly to the victims' families," 
he added in passing sentence. 

Nakamura was also convicted of the abduction and killing of Kyoshi Kariya, 
the 68-year old brother of an AUM follower in 1995 and conspiracy to kill a 
27-year-old AUM member in 1994, and of helping to build the cult's sarin 
production plant. - Sapa-AFP 

_______________________

Nagoya building owner slaps eviction order on AUM

(Kyodo News Service, May 16, 2001)  

  
NAGOYA, May 16 (Kyodo) - The owner of a building in Nagoya where the AUM 
Shinrikyo religious cult set up a branch office has ordered the group to 
vacate the building by July 31, police sources said Wednesday. 

The 60-year-old owner told the AUM group on April 27 that he will not renew 
the contract to rent the three-story building in Nagoya's Nishi Ward and 
demanded they leave, the sources said. About eight AUM members are believed 
to live there. 

He told a press conference Wednesday that AUM pledged in a written statement 
it would vacate the building by the end of August. 

The man said he hopes to sell the building and the 880-square-meter plot, but 
ruled out the possibility of selling it to the cult. The sources said he 
wants to sell the property for 147 million yen and is currently looking for a 
buyer through a real estate agent. 

The owner said from the beginning he intended to rent the building to the 
group for only one year and that the cult accepted the eviction order. 

He also indicated he is seeking the eviction because he was ''bothered'' by 
press interviews and denied that AUM caused trouble such as delays in rent 
payment. 

The cult opened the branch office in August last year under a one-year lease 
contract. Before that, the group had rented the building until December 1999. 

The group has organized seminars for followers in violation of its agreement 
with the owner and caused anxiety among neighbors. Local residents had been 
seeking eviction of the cult and had collected 32,000 signatures by November 
last year. 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and many 
other cultists have been tried on a number of charges, including the March 
1995 sarin attack on Tokyo subways, which killed 12 people and injured 
thousands. 

Several cultists have been found guilty of various crimes, but Asahara's 
trial is still proceeding at a snail's pace.  

_______________________

Victim says AUM guru deserves gassing

("Mainichi Shimbun," May 11, 2001)

AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara should face the same treatment a 
deceased victim of the cult's deadly gas attacks went through, a bereaved 
family member told the Tokyo District on Thursday.

"I want [Asahara] to face what my father did," the eldest daughter of sarin 
gas-attack victim Mitsuo Okada told the court during the cult founder's trial 
hearing Thursday. "I want him to breathe in sarin and get hooked up to an 
artificial respirator, then lie on a bed for a year and a half not being able 
to do anything."

Okada died in a coma at the age of 52, 15 months after the cult's gas attacks 
on Tokyo subways in 1995 that killed 12 and caused thousands to fall ill.

"I still hate to think about it," Okada's daughter said, adding that she 
couldn't forgive people in the cult, which she believed thought everything 
was all right as long as they had no problems themselves.

Several people who were seriously injured in the gas attacks have already 
given evidence at Asahara's trial. Testimonies from bereaved family members 
began Thursday. (Mainichi Shimbun)

_______________________

Kin of subway attack victims testify in guru's trial

(Kyodo News Service, May 10, 2001)  

  
TOKYO, May 10 (Kyodo) - The court trying AUM Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara 
heard Thursday for the first time from relatives of those killed in the 
cult's 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, with the daughter of one of 
the victims saying she wants to see Asahara die by inhaling the same deadly 
nerve gas. 

The woman, whose father Mitsuo Okada died after spending 14 months in a coma 
hooked up to a respirator, told the Tokyo District Court she hopes Asahara, 
46, inhales sarin like her father and dies in the same way. 

Okada, a 51-year-old company worker, was on his way to work on the Hibiya 
Line when his subway car was gassed. 

His daughter told the court she could not believe the man lying in a coma in 
the hospital bed was her father. ''(My father) would play golf and go 
drinking energetically,'' she said in a tearful voice. 

She said her mother was hospitalized for shock and still receives treatment. 

Shizue Takahashi, 54, told the same hearing, ''My husband will not return and 
my heart will not heal, but my desire for revenge may be soothed if (Asahara) 
is executed.'' 

Her husband, Kazumasa Takahashi, deputy of the Tokyo subway's Kasumigaseki 
Station, died at age 50 after removing a plastic bag containing sarin from a 
train that had stopped at the station. 

The attack left 12 people dead and more than 5,000 injured. Asahara, whose 
real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is on trial in 13 criminal cases, including 
the Tokyo subway gassing. 

Asahara was originally indicted on 17 charges but public prosecutors in 
October last year canceled indictments on four drug cases in order to help 
speed up his trial. 

_______________________

Ryugasaki accepts AUM children's registrations

(Kyodo News Service, April 25, 2001)  
  

MITO, Japan, April 25 (Kyodo) - The city of Ryugasaki in Ibaraki Prefecture, 
eastern Japan, announced Tuesday it has accepted the registrations of four 
children of Shoko Asahara, founder of the AUM Shinrikyo religious cult, and 
three former AUM followers. 

''It is difficult to continue rejecting (the registrations) in a 
constitutional nation, simply based on anxious emotions of residents,'' said 
Mayor Takehisa Kushida at a press conference. 

The city had been rejecting applications by the seven since July last year, 
when their move to the city was confirmed, on the grounds that accepting 
their registrations would compromise the ''welfare of the public.'' 

The mayor also revealed that the children and the former followers had asked 
the Ibaraki prefectural government to reconsider the city's decision to 
reject their registrations last November, but have since withdrawn their 
request. 

Asahara, 46, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is currently on trial on 13 
criminal charges, including the masterminding of the 1995 sarin nerve-gas 
attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and injured 
thousands. 

AUM renamed itself Aleph in January last year. 

_______________________

Aum cult still fundamentally dangerous: government

(AFP, April 13, 2001) 
  

TOKYO, April 13 (AFP) - Japan's notorious Aum Supreme Truth sect, responsible 
for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, is turning itself into a cyber 
network but is still fundamentally dangerous, the government warned in a 
report Friday.

"The Aum Supreme Truth sect still harbours fundamental dangers," Justice 
Minister Masahiko Komura was quoted by a ministry official as telling the 
cabinet meeting.

"Moreover, we cannot say there is any change to its secretive and deceptive 
character," Komura said.

"The sect attempts to conceal its organizational management by utilizing 
telecommunications systems such as the Internet and video conferencing to 
relaying its orders, and manage and teach its members," Komura said.

"While building up telecommunications network, the sect is further 
strengthening its secretive nature by introducing a code system," Komura said.

Public Security Investigation Agency spokesman Kazuya Sameshima told AFP the 
agency had evidence showing Aum -- which renamed itself Aleph in January 2000 
-- continues to be centered on its founder Shoko Asahara.

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was arrested on May 16 1995 in 
connection with the Tokyo subway attack which killed 12 people and injured 
thousands of others, and has been held in custody ever since.

"First of all, the sect members are absolute believers, and worshippers of 
Matsumoto," Sameshima said.

Created by Asahara, a charismatic, half-blind man, the sect shocked the world 
when Asahara's disciples released Nazi-invented sarin gas in the Tokyo subway 
on March 20 1995 to avenge a police crackdown on the cult.

The self-styled guru is on trial facing multiple charges including murder for 
masterminding the subway attack.

"Secondly, we can say that Matsumoto and (Fumihiro) Joyu, who had been 
executives of the sect at the time of two sarin gas attacks, still are 
executives," Sameshima said.

After the subway attack, Joyu, an urbane, articulate and photogenic spokesman 
was the acceptable face of the cult, but he eventually served a three-year 
prison term for perjury and forging documents.

"The sect bans believers' contacts with society at large, and still restricts 
their meetings with their families," Sameshima said.

"The secret way in which teaching is conducted has not changed," Sameshima 
said.

"Believers are not dropping the sect's doctrine which is said to be the 
fastest way to help mankind, and which also condones murder," Sameshima said, 
adding that police raids on sect premises had found copies of Matsumoto's 
writings and videos on its credo.

"We make on-the-spot inspections of the sect's facility almost monthly."

The spokesman said the authorities would continue to keep up constant 
monitoring of the sect's activities but acknowledged it had so far complied 
with restrictions placed on it, and the obligation to submit to searches.

"The Public Security Investigation agency will continue to promote 
inspections strongly, discover the actual status of the sect and respond to 
the public's expectations," the justice minister said.

According to the report, the sect currently numbers about 650 full-time 
leaders and teachers, and more than 1,000 followers.

It has 29 major facilities such as training centres, and regional branches. 
Aum also has about 200 accommodation facilities for full-time adherents, the 
ministry said in the report.

_______________________

Aum membership grew in 2000

("The Japan Times," April 14, 2001)

The number of Aum Shinrikyo members living in the cult's facilities 
nationwide increased by about 150 to around 650 in the year 2000, Justice 
Minister Masahiko Komura said during a Cabinet meeting Friday.The number of 
the cult members who periodically attend meetings or other events by the 
cult, which now calls itself Aleph, also increased to more than 1,000 as of 
the end of last year, Komura reported. The cult has 29 facilities in 13 
prefectures, and has obtained revenues from 13 affiliated corporations and 
contributions from followers living outside the Aum facilities, he 
said.Several dozens members who had been imprisoned for their involvement in 
crimes allegedly committed by the cult returned to the group, according to 
the minister.Under the law to regulate the cult's activities, established in 
1999, the cult is required to periodically report its activities and the 
number of its members to the Public Security Investigation Agency

_______________________

Japan Issues Cult Warning

("International Herald Tribune," April 14, 2001)

Japan's notorious Aum Shinrikyo sect, responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway 
sarin gas attack, is turning itself into a cyber network but is still 
fundamentally dangerous, the government warned in a report Friday.
.
The sect "still harbors fundamental dangers," Justice Minister Masahiko 
Komura was quoted by a ministry official as telling the cabinet. "Moreover, 
we cannot say there is any change to its secretive and deceptive character," 
Mr. Komura said.
.
"The sect attempts to conceal its organizational management by utilizing 
telecommunications systems such as the Internet and video conferencing to 
relay its orders, and manage and teach its members," Mr. Komura said.
.
Kazuya Sameshima, a Public Security Investigation Agency spokesman, said that 
the agency had evidence showing that the sect, which renamed itself Aleph in 
January 2000, continued to be centered on its founder, Shoko Asahara.
.
Mr. Asahara was arrested in May 1995 in connection with the Tokyo subway 
attack. The attack killed 12 people and wounded thousands. Mr. Asahara has 
been held in custody ever since.
.
According to the government report, the sect currently numbers about 650 
full-time leaders and teachers, and more than 1,000 followers. TOKYO Japan's 
notorious Aum Shinrikyo sect, responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas 
attack, is turning itself into a cyber network but is still fundamentally 
dangerous, the government warned in a report Friday.
.
The sect "still harbors fundamental dangers," Justice Minister Masahiko 
Komura was quoted by a ministry official as telling the cabinet. "Moreover, 
we cannot say there is any change to its secretive and deceptive character," 
Mr. Komura said.
.
"The sect attempts to conceal its organizational management by utilizing 
telecommunications systems such as the Internet and video conferencing to 
relay its orders, and manage and teach its members," Mr. Komura said.
.
Kazuya Sameshima, a Public Security Investigation Agency spokesman, said that 
the agency had evidence showing that the sect, which renamed itself Aleph in 
January 2000, continued to be centered on its founder, Shoko Asahara.
.
Mr. Asahara was arrested in May 1995 in connection with the Tokyo subway 
attack. The attack killed 12 people and wounded thousands. Mr. Asahara has 
been held in custody ever since.
.
According to the government report, the sect currently numbers about 650 
full-time leaders and teachers, and more than 1,000 followers. TOKYO Japan's 
notorious Aum Shinrikyo sect, responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas 
attack, is turning itself into a cyber network but is still fundamentally 
dangerous, the government warned in a report Friday.
.
The sect "still harbors fundamental dangers," Justice Minister Masahiko 
Komura was quoted by a ministry official as telling the cabinet. "Moreover, 
we cannot say there is any change to its secretive and deceptive character," 
Mr. Komura said.
.
"The sect attempts to conceal its organizational management by utilizing 
telecommunications systems such as the Internet and video conferencing to 
relay its orders, and manage and teach its members," Mr. Komura said.
.
Kazuya Sameshima, a Public Security Investigation Agency spokesman, said that 
the agency had evidence showing that the sect, which renamed itself Aleph in 
January 2000, continued to be centered on its founder, Shoko Asahara.
.
Mr. Asahara was arrested in May 1995 in connection with the Tokyo subway 
attack. The attack killed 12 people and wounded thousands. Mr. Asahara has 
been held in custody ever since.
.
According to the government report, the sect currently numbers about 650 
full-time leaders and teachers, and more than 1,000 followers. 

_______________________

Japan warns of cult internet boom

("BBC News," April 13,2001)

Doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, which was behind the 1995 Sarin gas attack on 
the Tokyo subway, is growing and remains a threat, according to the Japanese 
justice ministry. 
In the latest annual review of the cult, the ministry said it was reasserting 
its influence via the internet. 

The ministry said Aum Shinrikyo now had about 650 leaders and teachers and a 
further 1,000 followers in Japan and elsewhere, and uses the internet and 
video conferencing to stay in touch. 

Cult leader Shoko Asahara is in jail
 

The group hit the headlines in 1995 after releasing deadly Sarin nerve gas in 
the Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring thousands of others. 

The cult, which changed its name last year to Aleph - the first letter of the 
Hebrew alphabet - insists it is now a benign religious group. 

Dangerous 

Noting that it had changed its name and apologised for the gas attack, the 
report said however that the organisation's "deceptive nature" remained 
unchanged. 

"The sect attempts to conceal its organisational management by using systems 
such as the internet and video conferencing to relay its orders and manage 
and teach its members", the French news agency AFP quoted the Justice 
Minister, Masahiko Komura, as saying. 

The report concluded that the group's "dangerous nature has not changed", 
even though no poisonous substances or ingredients have been found in their 
facilities. 

It noted that Aleph was expanding its computer-related business and making 
profits from other companies involved in publicising the teachings of its 
jailed leader, Shoko Asahara. 

Since the jailing of Asahara - a half-blind, charismatic man whose real name 
is Chizo Matsumoto - daily control of the cult has fallen to Fumihiro Joyu, 
the former head of Aum's operations in Moscow. 

_______________________

Japan Says Doomsday Cult Membership Growing Steadily

(AP, April 13, 2001)

TOKYO (AP)--Membership of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 deadly gas attack 
on the Tokyo subways is growing steadily, as it reasserts its influence 
through the Internet, the Japanese government said Friday. 
Membership of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult has grown by about 150, or 10%, with 
around 1,650 followers by the end of last year, the Justice Ministry said in 
a report submitted to the Cabinet. About 650 of them are carrying out cult 
activities at group homes and facilities, the ministry said. 

The group was responsible for the sarin gas attack on March 20, 1995, which 
killed 12 people and affected thousands. The incident shook the people's 
sense of security in Japan, which had enjoyed a relatively low crime rate. 

The report said that on the surface the group had changed its name, 
acknowledged its responsibility for the subway gassing, and apologized. But 
fundamentally, it remains the same, the report said. 

"The group's dangerous nature has not changed even though no poisonous 
substances or ingredients have been found at their facilities," the report 
said. "Its deceptive nature is unchanged." 

Investigators at the Public Safety Agency have found 29 Aum facilities and 
200 apartment houses in 10 on-site inspections, the report said. 

It said the cult, which now calls itself Aleph, is expanding its 
computer-related business and raking in profits from its 13 companies. 

Under influential leader Fumihiro Joyu's "cyber cult" plan, the group 
continues spreading its "dangerous" teachings on the Net, the report said. 

Joyu, jailed guru Shoko Asahara's most-trusted aide, was released from prison 
in December 1999 and is considered the cult's de facto leader. 

The cult also earns funds by charging excessive fees through the sale of 
books and compact discs containing Asahara's teachings and seminars. 

The group is moving to expand its operations overseas as well, said the 
report, which did not specify where. 

By law the cult is under Public Safety Agency surveillance. The Justice 
Ministry is responsible for publishing the cult's activities in an annual 
report. The latest update covers the period between May 16 and December 31, 
2000. 

Judges have handed down death sentences to several former leaders involved in 
the gas attack and other killings. Guru Shoko Asahara is still on trial for 
masterminding the 1995 gassing and 16 other charges. 

_______________________

Civil suit ruling for Asahara gas atack due July 25

("Japan Times," April 12, 2001)

The Tokyo District Court decided Wednesday to hand down a ruling on July 25 
in a damages lawsuit filed against Shoko Asahara, founder of the Aum 
Shinrikyo cult, over a 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 
The decision was made after the plaintiffs, eight family members representing 
four victims of the attack and demanding 545 million yen in damages, gave 
their final statements before the court, concluding hearings in the civil 
case.

The case was filed in August 1995, about one year after the attack, but 
proceedings were suspended for almost four years because the court decided in 
December 1996 to await the verdict of criminal lawsuits filed against 
Asahara, 46.

In February of this year, the court decided not to put Asahara on the stand 
in the civil case because they did not believe the cult leader would testify 
voluntarily in court. Masako Yasumoto, 64, whose daughter was killed in the 
attack, told the court that she is frustrated because she will not hear 
directly from Asahara in court.

"I will never forgive Asahara for killing my beloved daughter," she said.

Seven people were killed and more than 200 people were injured by the sarin 
gas attack in the city of Matsumoto in June 1994.

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has been indicted on 13 
criminal charges, including those related to the 1995 sarin gas attack on the 
Tokyo subway system.

_______________________

Ruling in civil lawsuit against AUM's Asahara due July 25

(Kyodo News Service, April 11, 2001)  

TOKYO, April 11 (Kyodo) - The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday decided to 
hand down a ruling in a damages lawsuit filed against AUM Shinrikyo religious 
cult founder Shoko Asahara over a 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano 
Prefecture, on July 25. 

The decision was made after the plaintiffs, eight family members representing 
four victims of the attack and demanding 545 million yen in damages, gave 
their final statements before the court earlier in the day to conclude the 
hearing in the civil case. 

The case was filed in August 1995, about one year after the attack, but 
proceedings were suspended for almost four years because the court decided in 
December 1996 to await the verdict of criminal lawsuits filed against 
Asahara, 46. 

In February of this year, the court decided not to put Asahara on the stand 
in the civil case as they felt the cult leader would not testify voluntarily 
in court. 

Masako Yasumoto, 64, whose daughter was killed in the attack, told the court 
that she is frustrated because she will not hear directly from Asahara (in 
court). ''I will never forgive Asahara for killing my beloved daughter,'' she 
said. 

Seven people were killed and more than 200 people were injured by the sarin 
gas attack in the central Japan city of Matsumoto in June 1994. 

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has been indicted on 13 
criminal charges, including those related to a 1995 sarin gas attack on the 
Tokyo subway system and the 1994 attack in Matsumoto. 

_______________________

Mainichi ordered to publish correction for AUM story

(Kyodo News Service, April 11, 2001)  

  
TOKYO, April 11 (Kyodo) - The Tokyo High Court ordered the Mainichi Shimbun 
newspaper Wednesday to publish a correction over a report on the AUM 
Shinrikyo religious cult run May 26 last year. 

But the ruling rejected the cult's compensation claim. 

AUM claimed in a libel suit filed against Mainichi Newspaper Co., the paper's 
publisher, May 29 last year that the report unfairly gave the impression it 
was continuing to manufacture deadly sarin gas, and sought 10 million yen in 
compensation. 

The Tokyo District Court rejected the suit, leading AUM to file an appeal 
with the high court Dec. 18. 

Presiding Judge Takaharu Kondo said two headlines run nearby to each other 
reading ''Sarin research continues'' and ''AUM'' might have given the false 
impression at first glance that the cult was still researching the production 
of sarin gas. 

However, the judge said, ''If a reader reads the entire story, they will not 
have such an impression,'' and that the story did not defame the cult. 

According to the ruling, the Mainichi reported that a chemical formula was 
written in a female cult member's notebook that was confiscated by police. 

''The ruling was unexpected,'' the Mainichi said. ''We will decide how to 
deal with the issue after examining the court ruling.'' 

AUM, which now calls itself Aleph, used sarin gas in a 1995 attack on the 
Tokyo subway system that killed 12 and made thousands ills and in an attack a 
year earlier on a judges' residential compound in Matsumoto, Nagano 
Prefecture. 

_______________________

Sarin gas attack victim says Asahara should face death penalty

(Kyodo News Service, April, 5, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, April 5 (Kyodo) - A survivor of the March 1995 sarin gas attack by the 
AUM Shinrikyo religious cult on the Tokyo subway system said Thursday during 
a trial in Tokyo that the cult's founder should face the death penalty for 
his crime. 

The 67-year-old man, testifying as a witness in the trial of AUM founder 
Shoko Asahara at the Tokyo District Court, said all those responsible for the 
sarin gas attack should share their fate and ''they deserve capital 
punishment.'' 

It was the first time that a victim of the incident has testified publicly 
about his feelings at Asahara's trial. Twelve people were killed and more 
than 5,000 injured in the subway attack. 

''I feel indignation that people who were on their way to work early to avoid 
the morning rush hour were indiscriminately killed or injured,'' the man 
testified. 

At about 8 a.m. on March 20, 1995, the man was on a train on the Hibiya Line 
when he noticed a clear liquid was leaking from the edge of a folded 
newspaper on the floor, he said. 

He leaned down to look more closely and unwittingly inhaled the sarin gas, 
which had been spread around the train by Toru Toyoda, a 33-year-old former 
senior member of the cult. 

When asked by prosecutors how he feels now when he looks back on the 
incident, the man said, ''I was terrified to see people who were in 
convulsions and groaning on the platform.'' 

The man, who was ill for two months after the attack, said he still suffers 
from aftereffects of the sarin gas such as weakened eyesight and a sluggish 
sensation in his lower body. 

Toyoda was sentenced last July to death by the same district court, along 
with another former AUM follower Kenichi Hirose. 

Shigeo Sugimoto, another former cult member, was sentenced to life in prison 
for his role as the driver of the getaway vehicle in the attack. 

All three appealed their convictions to the Tokyo High Court. 

Two other assailants in the 1995 attack, Masato Yokoyama and Yasuo Hayashi, 
both former senior cult members, also received death sentences from the local 
court, while Ikuo Hayashi, a former doctor at an AUM-affiliated hospital, was 
sentenced to lifetime imprisonment on the grounds that he showed remorse for 
his actions, and willingly turned himself in to the police. 

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was indicted on 13 charges, 
including those related to the 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway 
system, a 1994 sarin gas attack on judges' official residences in Matsumoto, 
Nagano Prefecture and the 1989 triple murder case of Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a 
lawyer who opposed AUM, his wife Satoko, and their 1-year-old son Tatsuhiko. 

_______________________

2 AUM cultists held for alleged fraud, document forgery

(Kyodo News Service, April 5, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, April 5 (Kyodo)  Two AUM Shinrikyo cultists were arrested Thursday on 
separate suspicion of fraud and falsification of documents, Tokyo police 
said. 

Hisayoshi Aramaki is suspected of swindling the government out of about 
720,000 yen in unemployment benefits, while Koji Kihara allegedly filed 
forged documents in connection with an AUM-run company, police said. 

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) searched seven locations in Tokyo 
including an AUM facility in Suginami Ward in connection with the 
allegations. 

Aramaki, 37, allegedly filed an application with a public employment security 
office and obtained a 90-day unemployment allowance, despite the fact he 
earned income from software development from March to June last year. 

Kihara, 46, is suspected of filing forged documents with local authorities in 
February 1999 when he reshuffled executives in the company. 

Kihara registered his personal computer shop NetBank in Tokyo's Akihabara 
electronic goods district with local authorities in December 1999, but closed 
it a month later. 

Aramaki, however, received unemployment allowance from the government, saying 
he was a NetBank employee who had been laid off. 

The MPD suspects the pair may have thought about obtaining unemployment 
benefits in a systematic manner because more than 10 other people applied for 
a similar allowance, claiming they were fired by the firm. 

Aramaki was part of the software development division of the doomsday cult, 
which now calls itself Aleph. 

During the time he received the allowance, he is believed to have developed 
cellular phone equipment in products used by a major mobile operator for more 
than 10 million yen. 

AUM orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that 
killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000. Founder Shoko Asahara and 
other former senior members of the sect have either been on trial or have 
been given sentences, including death, for their part in the attack. 

_______________________

Group seeks gov't aid for victims of AUM subway gas attack

(Kyodo News Service, March 19, 2001)  

  
TOKYO, March 19 (Kyodo) - (EDS: SUPPORT GROUP'S PHONE NO. IS 03-3502-7033.) 

A support group for victims of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway 
that killed 12 and sickened thousands called on the state to provide support 
for suffers on Monday, a day before the sixth anniversary of the incident. 

The group said it has indefinitely postponed its offer of free medical 
examinations for victims of the attack, allegedly committed by AUM Shinrikyo 
members, because the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare was reluctant to 
offer support. 

At a news conference in Tokyo, group representative Saburo Abe said in 
mid-February that it asked the ministry to fund its free medical examination 
plan, but the ministry said it would be ''impossible.'' 

''Treatment for victims of sarin gas has not been established. It is thus 
important to build up data (on patients) every year (through examination),'' 
he said. 

''I hope the government will act as soon as possible to provide support for 
victims,'' said Abe, a lawyer also serving as a receiver in bankruptcy 
proceedings for AUM. 

Last spring, the group conducted free diagnostic services for about 360 
victims of the Tokyo attack and another sarin incident in Nagano Prefecture 
in 1994. 

He said more than 60% of those examined showed ailments ranging from headache 
to hand and leg numbness to sight deterioration. 

Some also complained of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), symptoms of 
which include sleep disorders, depression and anxiety, saying they were 
haunted by vivid images of the incidents. 

Shizue Takahashi, a 54-year-old widow who lost her subway employee husband in 
the Tokyo assault, told reporters, ''It's a lie to say that time heals 
grief.'' 

She said she hopes 46-year-old AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is 
Chizuo Matsumoto, receives the death penalty. 

At around 8 a.m. on March 20, 1995, sarin gas was released inside five cars 
on three Tokyo subway lines, killing 12 passengers and subway workers and 
leaving more than 5,000 commuters sick. 

Investigators believe the attack was perpetrated by AUM cultists to distract 
police probes into the sect, which had been accused of a series of crimes 
such as confinement of members who tried to escape it. 

Asahara, believed to have masterminded the attack, and 13 others have been 
charged with murder or attempted murder in the incident. Trials are still 
going on for five of the 14 defendants at the Tokyo District Court. 

The four others are Masami Tsuchiya, 36, Tomomasa Nakagawa, 38, Seiichi Endo, 
40, who all are thought to be responsible for manufacturing the deadly gas, 
and Tomomitsu Niimi, 37, who allegedly drove a getaway car in the assault. 

So far, the district court has handed down rulings to nine. Capital 
punishment was given to four, while the five others were given indefinite 
jail terms. The sentences for eight have been appealed. 

Tatsuko Muraoka, a representative of the cult, on Monday apologized for the 
''grave consequence'' of the subway attack and its ''incalculable damages to 
the lives of several thousand innocent citizens and causing tremendous fear 
and trepidation to the nation.'' 

The cult ''will continue making efforts at compensating and apologizing to 
the bereaved families and victims,'' she said. 

_______________________

Don't forget Tokyo subway gas attack: survivors and bereaved families

 
 (AFP, March 19, 2001)
 

TOKYO, March 19 (AFP) - On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the doomsday 
cult Aum's nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway, survivors and bereaved 
families Monday urged the public to help them and not to forget the tragedy.

"The government has said that it will assist victims of the crime. But we 
have not received any," said Shizue Takahashi, 54, who lost her husband in 
the 1995 sarin-gas massacre.

"People say the time heals wounds. But that's not true," she said. "In my 
ordinary, day-to-day life, I feel extreme sadness about the loss of my 
husband."

"I just sit alone in my house and weep because I feel so empty," she said. 
"There are many people who are like me or who were injured in the attack. I 
ask the government for more support."

At 8 am on March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Supreme Truth released the 
Nazi-invented nerve gas in crowded subway trains, killing 12 people and 
injuring more than 5,500.

The cult's near-blind guru Chizuo Matsumoto, whose religious name is Shoko 
Asahara, was arrested two months later.

He is on trial in the Tokyo district court on multiple charges -- including 
masterminding the subway attack which smacked of his vision of an apocalyptic 
war towards the end of the century.

The gassing was staged as the cult, dabbling in Indian mysticism and 
primitive Buddhism, was braced for a police crackdown in connection with its 
earlier Sarin-gas attack in the provincial city of Matsumoto, 150 kilometres 
(90 miles) northwest of Tokyo.

In a press conference, the survivors and the bereaved families emphasized the 
need for monetary assistance from the government to compensate them or to 
help pay for medical costs.

Last year, a private fund set up in 1999 by volunteers offered free medical 
checkups to 360 survivors of the attack.

"However, the fund is not able to offer the same checkups due to the lack of 
funding," said Kenji Utsunomiya, a manager of the fund. He leads a team of 
lawyers representing about 160 survivors or relatives of those who died in 
the attack. 

"That's why the government must do something to help the victims," he said. 

A woman, who was injured in the subway attack, said she still suffers from 
chronic migraines and emotional problems.

"Without government support, many survivors cannot receive medical checkups," 
said the women, who asked for anonymity. "Simple annual checkups would give 
many people peace of mind."

Another woman, who lost her father in the attack expressed her frustration 
over the slow progress in Matsumoto's trial.

"I came before (reporters) last year, telling you that I hoped for the swift 
conclusion of the case," said the woman, who also asked not to be named.

"This year, I have nothing to tell you because nothing has happened (to 
Matsumoto.)," she said. "I just feel that it has been taking so long. And 
it's been very frustrating."

"We want people to hear our stories," she said. "It takes a lot of courage to 
speak out. But we must keep telling our stories in order to keep the issue 
alive."

Six subway stations, which were used as targets of the attacks, will erect 
platforms Tuesday for bereaved families and commuters to offer flowers in 
remberance.

The Kasumigaseki station, whose two staff members died in trying to rescue 
passengers, will hold a silent prayer at 8 am (2300 GMT) Tuesday, when the 
attack took place, according to the Teito Rapid Transit Authority.

The Kasumigaseki district of Tokyo is crowded with central government offices 
and the station is one of the busiest in Tokyo during the rush hour.

"We are holding those events to mark the sixth anniversary of the sarin gas 
incident," said a spokesman for the authority. "It is to remind us of the 
incident that we must not forget."

Almost all the cult's leaders have been jailed but it is still seen as a 
threat to society with about 1,200 followers. It changed its name to Aleph in 
January 2000.

_______________________

Key Members of the Aum Cult

("New York Times," March 18, 2001)  

What's happened to the founder of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, his family and his 
followers since the 1995 Tokyo subway attack:

--SHOKO ASAHARA, 45: Aum's guru, who attracted followers with claims he could 
levitate, among other things, is on trial for murder and other crimes in a 
lower Tokyo court. In an effort to speed up proceedings, prosecutors last 
year dropped three of the 17 charges against him.

--YASUO HAYASHI, 43: Dubbed the ``murder machine'' by the Japanese media, 
Asahara's chief scientific adviser was sentenced to death in July for 
puncturing three plastic bags of sarin gas on a crowded subway.

--TOMOKO MATSUMOTO, 42: Asahara's wife was convicted of conspiring with her 
husband and other Aum disciples to kill another cult member. She is serving a 
six-year prison sentence.

--REIKA MATSUMOTO, 17: Asahara's daughter was involved in a brief kidnapping 
of his 7-year-old son last year in an apparent leadership struggle. Some cult 
watchers say Asahara's children are revered by followers.

--MIWA MATSUMOTO, 22: Asahara's oldest daughter was arrested last month on 
charges she shoplifted $175 worth of food from a Tokyo supermarket.

--FUMIHIRO JOYU, 38: The handsome, media-friendly Aum spokesman was released 
from prison in December 1999 and is considered the current de facto leader of 
the cult.

--TATSUKO MURAOKA, 50: An aide to Asahara's family, she formally assumed 
leadership of Aum after the guru's arrest but is regarded as a figurehead.
 

_______________________

AUM guru may undergo mental tests

     
("Mainichi Shimbun ," March 15, 2001)

Shoko Asahara, the founder of the doomsday cult AUM Shinrikyo could escape 
punishment for masterminding the cult's crimes on the grounds that he is 
mentally unstable, the Mainichi has learned. Asahara is on trial in the Tokyo 
District Court on 13 charges, including some relating to AUM's infamous Tokyo 
subway poison gas attack that killed 12 people, and other crimes. His defense 
lawyers have asked that the guru undergo psychiatric tests and are expected 
to argue that Asahara has suffered a mental disorder due to his long-term 
detention. If Asahara is proven to be mentally incapacitated, he will, under 
the Code of Criminal Procedure, escape punishment for the 13 charges, 
including murder. But if he is found to have feigned mental illness, his 
defense will suffer a body blow. "It can save or finish (Asahara)," a member 
of the defense team admitted. Asahara's trial will be halted for about six 
months if the court grants the lawyers' request, made nearly four years after 
the start of Asahara's trial. The lawyers have been criticized for apparently 
prolonging the trial after the courts found Asahara, whose real name is 
Chizuo Matsumoto, responsible for the AUM attacks during the trials of other 
cult members. The guru has blamed his disciples for the offenses. Coinciding 
with the time that his trusted disciples were in turn pointing the finger at 
their guru during their respective trials, from around the autumn of 1996, 
Asahara increasingly began to act erratically in the court. His lawyers said 
they had been unable to fully communicate with him from around April 1997 and 
his mental state had reached the point where he should undergo psychiatric 
testing. "It is impossible to judge whether he is capable of recognizing his 
current position and is fit to stand trial without undergoing expert 
analysis," one of the defense lawyers said. In preparation for making the 
request, the lawyers have asked the court to inform them how Asahara is 
spending his time in his cell. The Tokyo Detention Center replied that there 
is nothing remarkable about his conduct. It is likely that the defense team 
will file the request following the conclusion of prosecutors' arguments. 
Hideo Hosaki, a top psychiatrist who examined pedophile serial killer Tsutomu 
Miyazaki, said that the results of mental tests may trigger another round of 
endless debate in the court. "You have to study everything about his 
behavior, not only his conduct in the courtroom but how he behaves in the 
detention center, to see whether he is mentally affected by his life in 
custody," Hosaki said. "Moreover, he is a guru, and his background totally 
differs from that of normal persons on which medical judgements are based on. 
Whatever the result, it is a distinct possibility that the trial will run on 
and on." Makoto Oda, a professor at International University of Health and 
Welfare in Tochigi Prefecture who examined an accused AUM member, believes 
Asahara should undergo the tests. "I've heard a rumor that Matsumoto once 
asked his lawyers if it is possible to escape prosecution by feigning a 
mental disorder. So, if the mental examination can clear things up, it must 
be done," Oda said. 

_______________________

Lawyers mull psychiatric tests for Aum cult leader: report

(AFP, March 14, 2001) 

     Lawyers for the founder of Japan's Aum Supreme Truth sect, responsible 
for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, are considering whether to conduct tests 
to see if he is insane, reports said Wednesday.

     "The defendant's lawyers ... are considering applying to the Tokyo 
District Court for a psychiatric examination to be conducted" on Shoko Asahara, the daily 
Mainichi Shimbun reported.

     "There is a possibility the defendant might have developed a 
psychological disorder, and lost his capacity to be tried because of his mental reaction to 
custody," Asahara's lawyers told the Mainichi Shimbun.

     Defence lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

     Created by Asahara, a charismatic, half-blind man, the sect shocked the 
world when Asahara's disciples released Nazi-invented sarin gas in the Tokyo subway 
on March 20 1995 to avenge a police crackdown on the cult.

     The subway gassing killed 12 people and injured thousands of others.

     Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was arrested on May 16 
1995 and has been held in custody ever since, but the authorities have said they believe he still has a 
firm grip on the sect.

     The self-styled guru is on trial facing multiple charges including 
murder for masterminding the subway attack.

     "If the examination finds the defendant Matsumoto is not (mentally) 
capable of standing trial, the lawyers will ask  the district court to halt the trial procedure," the paper said.

     "There is a possibility that the trial procedure will be stopped and his 
capacity to take responsibility will also be challenged," by the defence lawyers Jiji Press reported.

     The prosecution's case in the trial which started on April 24 1996 is 
expected to wind up by the end of this year, Jiji Press said.

     The sect, which has escaped being banned outright, admitted its involvement in the subway 

attack for the first time in December 1999 and apologised to the victims.

     In January 2000 it changed its name to Aleph as part of a facelift and 
now has about 1,200 followers.

     Although virtually all the cult's leaders at the time of the attack have 
been jailed, the government said the group still poses a threat to Japanese society and

security authorities remain  vigilant, with police periodically mounting raids
on the sect's property.

_______________________

1,000 attend Ibaraki rally to demand AUM pullout

(Kyodo News Service, March 4, 2001)  

  
MITO, Japan, March 4 (Kyodo) - About 1,000 residents attended a rally in the 
town of Sanwa, Ibaraki Prefecture on Sunday, demanding the AUM Shinrikyo cult 
leave the town, where it continues to maintain a facility despite the expiry 
of the land lease at the end of February. 

Sanwa Mayor Kijyuro Tateno said at the rally that townspeople should join 
forces to get the cult to leave their town. He later delivered letters of 
request to that effect to AUM spokesman Hiroshi Araki and other AUM members. 

Araki responded that AUM has apologized for ''past incidents'' and taken 
remedial steps. 

After the rally, about 20 local residents held a meeting with Araki, who 
angered the townspeople by saying that the cult's apology had not been aimed 
at seeking the town's ''pardon.'' 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and numerous 
followers have been tried on a number of counts, including charges in 
connection with the March 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, 
which killed 12 people and injured thousands. The group now calls itself 
Aleph. 

_______________________

Japanese cult wave of the future?
Aum Shin Rikyo extends influence around world

by Anthony C. LoBaido ("World Net Daily," February 28, 2001)

(Editor's note: In his recent assignments in Korea, Japan, Kurdistan, Iraq, 
Cyprus and Denmark, WorldNetDaily international correspondent Anthony C. 
LoBaido gathered information for this analysis of the shadowy world of the 
Aum Shin Rikyo cult.) 

While the practice of traditional religions wanes in much of the West, one 
influential, violent cult headquartered in Japan -- Aum Shin Rikyo -- is 
raising eyebrows in intelligence agencies the world over. 

The CIA, in fact is undertaking a global survey of apocalyptic cults in 
earnest. The intelligence agency says there are no less than 1,200 active 
cults on Earth. More than a quarter of them spread "doomsday" or "end times" 
dogma. 

Apocalyptic cults are a serious concern, not only to the CIA, but to the FBI. 
Director Louis Freeh told Congress he feared some cults were willing to wage 
an "apocalyptic struggle" between what in their view were the spheres of good 
and evil. 

Scores of cults have appeared on the scene in recent years. Who can forget 
Jim Jones and his Kool-Aid suicide cult in Guyana where 900 perished? Then 
came the Heaven's Gate group, which committed mass suicide while waiting for 
a UFO they believed was trailing behind the Hale-Bopp comet. More than 70 
members of the Order of the Solar Temple committed suicide in Switzerland, 
France and North America. The Aum group even has a cousin in the neo-Nazi 
Japanese Sukyo Mahikari cult, which believes in an end-times blood bath and 
chastisement. 

But there is no cult quite like Aum Shin Rikyo -- or "Supreme Truth." 

What is the 'Supreme Truth'? 

The cult's tenets are based on ancient yoga and primitive Buddhism. They also 
worship the Hindu god Shiva, who holds the keys to both destruction and 
creation. Destruction and creation, in the cult's view, are one in the same. 

Aum Shin Rikyo is best known for its 1995 sarin nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo 
subway that killed 11 people and injured more than 5,000. The sarin was 
hidden in lunch boxes and drink containers that were displayed normally on 
the floor of the subway. At rush hour, the Aum cult members broke open the 
containers with sharp points they had affixed to the end of umbrellas they 
were carrying. The cultists then fled the trains, leaving behind the innocent 
to suffer. It was an excellent attack from a military precision point of 
view, but from a scientific and effectiveness standpoint, it was horribly 
executed. The dispersal method of the nerve gas was just a fraction of what 
it could have been had other means been used. 

The victims of the attack suffered greatly. Symptoms included ocular pain, 
nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, visual black outs, muscle weakness and 
projectile vomiting. 

The sarin attack showed that Aum is no ordinary cult. It has raised its own 
army of computer programmers who have installed computer systems in almost 
100 top Japanese corporations. No one knows what's been installed along with 
the assigned data. Bugs? Root-access privileges? Remote transmitters and 
monitors, perhaps? 

The cult is diverse in its business interests. It sells health food and runs 
yoga studios. More importantly, the cult has stolen, through backdoors it set 
up at various outposts in Japan's military-industrial complex, secrets from 
the nation's top programs in the fields of lasers, nuclear warfare, 
counter-intelligence and space-flight operations. Aum's group is home to some 
of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world. It has raised over $1 
billion in legitimate computer sales within the nation. 

Moreover, its "M" division has done work for Japan's version of the Pentagon, 
the national phone system and many top corporations. The cult is divided into 
various "ministries," which in turn take their orders from the group's 
Science and Technology Agency. Medicine, physics, chemistry, biology, 
computer science, drugs and weapons are all disciplines the cult has 
compartmentalized with various experts. Cult members also manufactured 
amphetamines, truth serum and LSD. Anthrax and sarin nerve gas were also 
developed in the group's laboratories. 

The leader of the group, Shoko Asahara, has learned to cruise Japan's top 
universities to find new recruits to head his ambitious chemical, computer 
and other scientific projects. Strangely, these brilliant scientists would 
drink Asahara's bath water and wear odd headgear to try to bring the group's 
thoughts into harmony and alignment. 

The CIA, Pentagon and other Western intelligence agencies have had trouble 
curbing the free exchange of microbes executed by Aum scientists. Such 
exchanges occur every day in the modern war on disease. More than 1,500 
microbe banks worldwide can be sought out for millions of pure and readily 
available microorganisms, more than a few of which are lethal, even in small 
quantities. 

Aum Shin Rikyo should have caught the attention of U.S. military intelligence 
and the CIA long before the Tokyo subway attack. The cult mounted no less 
than nine attacks on American assets in Japan in recent years. One Aum cult 
member spoke of biological attacks carried out at U.S. military bases that 
went undetected. Cultists sprayed pestilential microbes and germ toxins off 
the tops of buildings and the backs of trucks. They admitted they had 
targeted the Imperial Palace, the Japanese legislature and the U.S. military 
station at Yokosuka, home to the Navy's 7th Fleet. The attacks failed only 
because Aum's henchmen released microbes that were not virulent enough to 
kill. 

Who is Shoko Asahara? 

Chizuo Matsumoto was a nobody in the early 1980s. It was then that he became 
famous in New Age circles for his mystical journey through the Himalayas. He 
even earned the blessing of the Dalai Lama. The cult leader launched his 
Buddhist-oriented sect in 1987. The following year he had more than 20,000 
followers. Though he is legally blind and not terribly bright, he did 
eventually assemble a separatist movement based at the foot of Mount Fuji. In 
time, he and his group's dark activities would take center stage at the 
global G-7 (now G-8) summit. 

Changing his name to Shoko Asahara, the Japanese cult leader taught that a 
great war was coming. According to terrorism expert Neil Livingstone, his 
plan was to manipulate America into attacking Japan, and then in the 
aftermath of Hiroshima-style destruction, he and his cult members would arise 
to rule over Japan. Asahara then began proclaiming to all who would listen 
that he was Jesus Christ. He even ran for parliament in 1990. 

Asahara's connections are global. He dispatched cult members to Zaire to try 
to obtain the Ebola virus. They also carried out a biological attack in the 
Australian Outback in 1993. 

The sweeping growth -- there are members in 20 nations -- and military-style 
organization of the group concern Western intelligence agents, which are 
leery that there is more to Aum Shin Rikyo than meets the eyes. 

For example, the group has ties to Russia, traditionally an enemy of Japan. 
The truce signed at Theodore Roosevelt's "Summer White House" at Oyster Bay, 
Long Island, at the end of the Russo-Japanese War was but a blip on the 
screen of long-standing hostility between the two nations. Technically, they 
are still at war over the Kurill Islands, circa World War II. During the Cold 
War, the Russians likely would have enjoyed watching Japan's financial might 
minimized. China is also a historical enemy of Japan, as are both South and 
North Korea, due to Japan's war crimes record from the World War II 
occupation of those nations. 

The Aum cult has a website in the Russian language and Asahara made a 
"salvation tour" to Russia during the 1990s. In late 1991, an Aum cultist had 
a meeting with Oleg Lobov, the chief at the Russian Security Council. The 
following year, Kiyohide Hayakawa, a top cult weapons expert roamed free in 
Russia, buying up weapons and advisers. The cult set up a front company that 
was staffed in part by Russian special forces, elite soldiers from the 9th, 
or "Deviata," Division. 

Maj. Vasily Bure, who served with the 9th Division at the Simferopol military 
base in Ukraine, told WorldNetDaily that his fellow soldiers would have been 
outraged to learn that the Aum Shin Rikyo cult was getting assistance from 
the Russian military. 

"We were directly controlled by the Russian president, and often we served as 
bodyguards for our nation's leaders. We were proud to serve our county in 
this manner," Bure told WorldNetDaily from his posh new office in Nicosia, 
Cyprus, where he runs an offshore banking company. 

"Our troops were the best of the best, not glooba [Russian for 'stupid']. 
They were huge men, what we call 'medviet' or 'bears.' Everyone wanted to 
join up with us. Alpha force, commandos, counter-terrorist troops and even 
the Vympel Special Forces. The Vympel troops are organized only to wage 
guerilla war in foreign nations, to created massive tactical confusion, 
poison blood and water supplies, take down power grids and oil reserves and 
so forth." 

Cults R Us 

The existence of various Western religious groups that infiltrated Russia 
after the fall of the Berlin Wall greatly angered Russia's leaders in the 
early to mid-1990s. Gen. Alexander Lebed, who ran the first war in Chechnya, 
railed against evangelizing groups like the Mormons. Many members of the U.S. 
Congress, meanwhile, were greatly angered when President Boris Yeltsin 
considered a bill that would limit the activities of foreign missionaries and 
recognized the Russian Orthodox Church as sort of an official state church. 

Aum Shin Rikyo, however, was not deterred. They launched their Russian 
language website and dispatched Asahara to the Motherland. 

Dr. Alexander Dvorkin, Russia's point man on combating foreign cults and a 
consultant under the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, 
spoke out against the rise of foreign religious cults in Russia. He stood by 
the Duma's desire to pass legislation to emasculate the growth of the cults. 

"As to criticism that this law brings us back to Brezhnev's or Chernyenko's 
times, I say: At that time, there were no Mormons or Scientologists at all 
here, period," Dvorkin explained. "This law will not evict them. It will 
somehow limit the activities of these sects, because the competition between 
the Orthodox Church and the sects is unfair -- the forces are uneven from the 
outset. The sects can buy TV time; plus they use dishonest forms of 
recruitment. The same Shoko Asahara unscrupulously told his Russian followers 
that Aum Shin Rikyo doctrine, in fact, coincided with the dogma of the 
Russian Orthodox Church." 

Then-President Yeltsin expressed his desire "to protect the moral and 
spiritual health of the nation and raise reliable barriers to radical sects 
which inflict great damage on the physical and mental health of our 
citizens." 

Yet despite the involvement of Yeltsin and other top Russian leaders in 
addressing the infiltration of cults into Russia, almost 50 of Asahara's men 
received military training from the elite Vympel special forces. 

Said British MI-6 intelligence agent Bryan Hampton: "This, of course, shows 
that the Russians are still fomenting terrorism in foreign nations. 
Everything is for sale in Russia -- satellite photos, advisers, nuclear and 
biological weapons, bodyguards, gems, oil -- you name it." 

Still at large 

As for Aum Shin Rikyo, some members received a death sentence for the sarin 
attack -- the first ever handed down for such a crime in Japan. Others were 
sentenced to prison. The cult, however, still remains at large both in Japan 
and overseas. It remains to be seen how successful both Western intelligence 
agencies and Japan will be in mitigating the activities of those who follow 
the "Supreme Truth." 

_______________________

Number of AUM cult members decreasing

(Kyodo News Service, Feb. 15, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, Feb. 15 (Kyodo) - The number of AUM Shinrikyo cult members totaled 
1,019 on Feb. 1, a decrease of 32 since Nov. 1, according to a report 
submitted by AUM to the Public Security Investigation Agency on Thursday. 

It is the fifth such report submitted to the agency by the cult, which now 
calls itself Aleph. 

There are 10 AUM facilities nationwide, the same as in the previous survey 
conducted in November, according to the report. 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and many 
other cultists have been tried on a number of charges, including the March 
1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway which killed 12 people and injured 
thousands. 

_______________________

Director of film on AUM gassing awarded at Berlin festival

(Kyodo News Service, Feb. 14, 2001)  
  

BERLIN, Feb. 14 (Kyodo) - Organizers of the 51st Berlin International Film 
Festival announced Tuesday a veteran Japanese director will receive a 
meritorious award for his latest film on the 1994 fatal nerve-gas attack by 
AUM Shinrikyo in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 

Kei Kumai, 70, will receive the Berlinale Camera award at a ceremony Thursday 
for ''Darkness in the Light,'' which focuses on media reports that falsely 
accused a man in the attack that killed seven people. 

Company worker Yoshiyuki Kono, 50, who was the first to report the gas attack 
to police, was initially considered the prime suspect even though he was also 
sickened by the gas. His wife remains in a coma following the attack. 

Kumai will be the second Japanese to receive the award following Kon 
Ichikawa, who won the prize last year for his work ''Dora Heita,'' (prodigal 
Heita) portraying a samurai who reforms a city ruled by gangs and corrupt 
bureaucrats. 

Kumai has participated in the film festival seven times. The organizers said 
the award conveys their homage to the Japanese director's long career. 

The award, established in 1986, is given to people in the film industry 
involved in a film not entered in the festival's competition. 

_______________________

Rightist held after shooting at Aum home

("Japan Times," February 12, 2001)

A man believed to be a member of a rightist group was arrested after firing 
shots Thursday night at an apartment building in Tokyo where followers of Aum 
Shinrikyo live, police said Friday.
Takayuki Inoue, 27, of Chofu, western Tokyo, was holding a handgun when he 
was detained by a police officer shortly before midnight near the apartment 
building in Setagaya Ward, police said.

Four shots were fired at the door of the owner of the building, who lives on 
the first floor, they said. Nobody was injured in the incident.

Police suspect Inoue is linked to a rightwing group that waged a noise 
campaign in the neighborhood using loudspeaker trucks after Aum followers 
moved into the building in December.

Police had searched the rightist group's office in the same ward Thursday 
morning in connection with the arrest of one of its members who in late 
December drove a loudspeaker truck at a police officer patrolling near the 
apartment. 

Police have kept the area under watch after a number of cultists got a lease 
from the owner of the building. and moved into apartments on the first and 
second floors.

Aum members were convicted or are standing trial for the sarin gas attack on 
the Tokyo subway system in 1995 in which 12 people were killed and thousands 
injured, as well as for a number of other heinous crimes. Aum founder Shoko 
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is among those being tried for 
murder and other charges. The cult has pledged to abide by the law, but it is 
still regarded with suspicion and many communities have resisted moves by Aum 
members to live in their areas.

The Setagaya Ward office has rejected the application for domicile 
registration filed by the Aum followers living in the apartment building.

_______________________

Prosecutors demand life imprisonment for ex-AUM follower

(Kyodo News Service, Feb. 8, 2001)  
  

TOKYO, Feb. 8 (Kyodo) - Prosecutors on Thursday asked the Tokyo High Court to 
sentence a former AUM Shinrikyo follower to life in prison for his 
involvement in a nerve-gas attack that killed seven people in Matsumoto, 
Nagano Prefecture, in 1994. 

At the first appeal hearing, prosecutors said a lower court ruling on the 
case overlooked Takashi Tomita, 42, who they claim played a crucial role in 
executing indiscriminate mass murder. 

Tomita's sentence -- 17 years in jail -- was ''too lenient'' in comparison to 
the punishment meted out to other AUM followers in previous rulings, they 
said. 

Lawyers representing Tomita claimed he was not guilty, saying he ''was not 
aware that gas was poisonous.'' 

Tomita was sentenced by the Tokyo District Court in June 1998 to 17 years in 
prison for murder and attempted murder in connection with the Matsumoto gas 
attack, which took place on June 27, 1994. 

Tomita was believed to have guarded the AUM member who spread the gas during 
the attack. 

Both prosecutors and Tomita appealed the 1998 ruling. 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and numerous 
followers have been tried on a number of counts, including charges in 
connection with the March 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, 
which killed 12 people and injured thousands. The group now calls itself 
Aleph. 

_______________________

Aum facilities inspected by agency

 
("Japan Times," Jan. 25, 2001)

The Public Security Investigation Agency on Wednesday inspected two Aum 
Shinrikyo facilities in Tokyo in an effort to determine how they are being 
used by the cult's members, agency officials said.
The agency also wishes to assess how many cultists are currently living the 
two properties, the officials added.

One facility is a house in Sanno, Ota Ward, at which the 38-year-old 
top-level member, Fumihiro Joyu, has been staying. The other is an apartment 
building in Minami-Karasuyama, Setagaya Ward, the officials said.

Aum rented the Minami-Karasuyama building, which is capable of accommodating 
up to 100 people, in mid-December as a residential-training facility, they 
said.

Joyu moved into the Sanno house in December, following unsuccessful 
relocations to various areas within Tokyo. His attempts to settle in these 
locations were dogged by residents' protests.

Following his release from prison in December 1999, after serving a 
three-year term for perjury and document falsification, Joyu lived in 
Yokohama until September.

The two Aum facilities in Tokyo were examined by the agency for the first 
time under a new law authorizing inspections of this kind.

The legislation took effect in December 1999. Having been officially targeted 
at Aum last February, the law tightens government control of the group in 
order to alleviate the concerns of the public.

Aum founder Shoko Asahara and many other cultists are on trial or have been 
tried for a raft of heinous crimes, including the March 1995 sarin attack on 
the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and injured thousands, and 
another killer nerve gas attack the previous year. 

_______________________

Asahara's eldest daughter arrested for alleged shoplifting

(Kyodo News Service, Jan. 19, 2001)  

  
TOKYO, Jan. 19 (Kyodo) - The eldest daughter of Shoko Asahara, founder of the 
AUM Shinrikyo religious cult, was arrested Friday for allegedly shoplifting 
at a supermarket in Tokyo's Kita Ward, police said. 

According to police investigations, Miwa Matsumoto, 22, lifted about 100 food 
items including sandwiches, sushi and chocolates worth about 20,000 yen at 
around 3:30 p.m. 

Police sources said there is no love lost between Matsumoto and her other 
sisters, and Matsumoto has remained aloof ever since AUM Shinrikyo changed 
its name to Aleph in January last year. 

Asahara, 45, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is on trial in 13 criminal 
cases, including the masterminding of the 1995 sarin nerve-gas attack on the 
Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and injured thousands. 

_______________________

Setagaya-ku residents rally against AUM

  
("Mainichi Shimbun," Jan. 10, 2001)  
 

In the latest campaign against the AUM Shinrikyo cult, as many as 500 
residents in Tokyo's Setagaya-ku held a rally on Tuesday, demanding that more 
than 20 AUM members leave local condominiums. 
Setagaya-ku officials said 13 AUM followers registered their residency in 
condominiums in the ward's Minami-Karasuyama district on Dec. 19. 

In an apparent bit to help ease residents' worries, the ward has set up a 
task force led by the ward's head, Keiji Osawa, and officials have been 
keeping watch around-the-clock on the condominiums where the AUM members 
live. 

_______________________

700 people file protest over AUM followers in neighborhood

(Kyodo News Service, Jan. 9, 2001)  

TOKYO, Jan. 9 (Kyodo) - About 700 residents of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward lodged a 
protest Tuesday against the AUM Shinrikyo cult, calling on members living in 
their neighborhood to leave quickly. 

The local residents said in a written protest statement that they have 
developed ''enormous concerns'' since 13 AUM followers filed for domicile 
registration with the ward office in December. 

On Tuesday, representatives of the residents visited an apartment in which 
the followers currently live and handed the statement to a male follower. 

It calls on AUM members to leave the cult, saying, ''We would support AUM 
members as our neighbors if they defect from the cult.'' 

But it warns, ''We demand AUM members immediately leave the neighbor if they 
keep using the apartment as a cult facility.'' 

The members of the cult, which now calls itself ''Aleph,'' responded by 
handing their own statement to the representatives, saying they too hope to 
live a trouble-free life. 

According to AUM officials, the cult signed a five-year contract with a 
property owner allowing around 20 AUM followers to reside in three 
condominiums. 

Senior AUM member Fumihiro Joyu, who currently lives in Tokyo's Ota Ward, may 
move into one of the condominiums, they said. 

Members of AUM carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 
in which 12 people were killed and thousands injured, as well as a number of 
other crimes. 

A number of AUM members have been convicted of serious crimes, but the trial 
of AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, on murder 
and other charges still drags on. 

_______________________

Man held for taking shots at AUM apartment  
Right-winger vowed to stop cult from 'roaming free'

("Mainichi Shimbun," Jan. 6, 2001)  
 

A right-wing political group member has been arrested after firing shots at a 
Tokyo apartment building where a number of AUM Shinrikyo cult followers 
reside, police said Friday. 
Takayuki Inoue, 27, from the Tokyo suburb of Komae, was held by police 
officers who rushed to the scene after hearing shots as he walked out of the 
building in Setagaya-ku with a revolver in his hand Thursday night. 

"I can't let those AUM followers roam free in the area where I live," Inoue 
was quoted by police as saying. Inoue is a deputy leader of the rightist 
group Minseikai Sohonbu, which is based in a building just a few hundred 
meters from the apartment he attacked, police said. 

Inoue turned up at the apartment building, where over a dozen AUM Shinrikyo 
followers have been living since last December, by taxi at around 11:50 p.m. 
Thursday. 

He walked into the building owned by Yutaka Takayama and fired two shots at 
the door of his first-floor apartment, and then fired two more rounds at the 
door of the cult's training room on the same floor. Takayama, 76, was not in 
the room at the time, police said. 

On the morning of the attack, police had searched the Minseikai office in 
relation to the arrest of a 24-year-old group member on Dec. 30 for driving a 
propaganda truck at a police officer patrolling near the apartment. The 
rightist group has deployed propaganda trucks in a campaign to drive the cult 
from the building since mid-December, police said. 

The Metropolitan Police Department's public security division has kept the 
apartment under close watch after followers of AUM Shinrikyo, now calling 
itself Aleph, got a lease from Takayama and moved into apartments on the 
first and second floors. 

The followers have applied for residents' registration with the ward office 
but the Setagaya Municipal Government has rejected them. 

AUM Shinrikyo carried out the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway 
system in 1995 in which 12 people were killed and thousands injured, as well 
as a number of other hideous crimes. 

The cult guru Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is still on 
trial on murder and other charges, and a number of AUM members have been sent 
to death row for their crimes. 

The cult has pledged that it has renounced its past sins and will abide by 
the law, but is faced with hate campaigns from local communities wherever 
they move. 

_______________________

Man arrested after shots fired at AUM-linked residence

(Kyodo News Service, Jan. 5, 2001)  

TOKYO, Jan. 5 (Kyodo)  A man believed to be a member of a rightist group was 
arrested after firing shots Thursday night at an apartment building in Tokyo 
where followers of the AUM Shinrikyo cult live, police said Friday. 

The man, Takayuki Inoue, 27, of Chofu, western Tokyo, was holding a handgun 
when he was detained by a police officer shortly before midnight near the 
apartment building in Setagaya Ward, the police said. 

Four shots were fired at the door of the owner of the building, who lives on 
the first floor, the police said. Nobody was injured in the incident. 

The police suspect Inoue is linked to a right-wing group that launched a 
noisy campaign in the neighborhood using loudspeaker trucks after the AUM 
followers moved into the building in December. 

Police had searched the rightist group's office in the same ward Thursday 
morning in connection with the arrest of one of its members who in late 
December drove a loudspeaker truck at a police officer patrolling near the 
apartment. 

The police have kept the area under watch after a number of followers of AUM 
got a lease from the owner of the building and moved into apartments on the 
first and second floors. 

Members of AUM carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 
1995 in which 12 people were killed and thousands injured, as well as a 
number of other crimes. 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is still on 
trial on murder and other charges, and a number of AUM members have been 
convicted of serious crimes. 

The cult has changed its name to Aleph and pledged to abide by the law, but 
is still regarded with suspicion and many communities in Japan have resisted 
moves by AUM members to live in their areas. 

The Setagaya Ward office has rejected the application for domicile 
registration filed by the AUM followers living in the apartment building. 

_______________________

Japan: Nerve-Gas Cult Active Online

(The Associated Press, December 23, 2000)
  

TOKYO (AP) - The doomsday cult responsible for a deadly nerve gas attack on 
Tokyo subway trains nearly six years ago is reasserting its influence via the 
Internet, the government warned in a report made public Saturday by Japanese 
news media. 

The Aum Shinri Kyo cult was disbanded in a police crackdown following the 
March 1995 gassing, which killed 12 rush-hour commuters and left of others 
thousands sick. Its bearded guru, Shoko Asahara, is on trial for 
masterminding the attack and other crimes. 

But Aum reorganized itself under a new name early this year - and is now 
trying to transform itself into a ``cybercult,'' the government agency that 
monitors its activities was quoted as saying by Kyodo News agency and public 
NHK television. 

In a report on national security threats, Japan's Public Security 
Investigation Agency said that the cult is making active use of the Internet, 
including its own Web site, to spread its teachings and organize followers. 

It has also gone online for financing and has been selling computer hardware 
and software over the Internet, the agency said. 

Agency officials were not available for comment late Saturday. 

Now called Aleph, the cult currently has about 1,700 members and is led by 
Aum's former spokesman. 

_______________________

AUM becoming 'cyber cult' with Joyu at center: security agency

(Kyodo News Service, Dec. 23, 2000)  

  
TOKYO, Dec. 23 (Kyodo) - The AUM Shinrikyo religious sect has been trying to 
transform itself into a ''cyber cult'' with senior member Fumihiro Joyu at 
its center, the Public Security Investigation Agency said in a report 
released Saturday. 

According to the report, AUM is still under the strong influence of 
45-year-old founder Shoko Asahara, who has been detained since May 1995 and 
tried on various charges, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo 
subway system that left 12 people dead and thousands injured. 

The agency said it has found photos and doctrinal documents by Asahara, whose 
real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, in searches of numerous AUM facilities. 

AUM has updated its Web site to emphasize the spread of its teachings, 
according to the report, which also examined other domestic and foreign 
security threats over the past year. 

The sect has started to notify mail-list subscribers daily of meetings and 
other events via mobile-phone Internet services, and has launched online 
sales of personal computers. 

The agency said AUM, which now calls itself Aleph, remains dangerous and it 
will continue monitoring the group next year under a new law authorizing 
inspections. 

In a recent letter to Kyodo News, 37-year-old Joyu said the law is 
unnecessary as AUM does not pose a threat to society. 

The legislation took effect in December last year. Officially implemented 
against AUM in February, it tightens government control of the group to 
alleviate the concerns of people living near AUM facilities. 

Joyu said the sect is just one of many religious groups that share a 
''general vision'' of using information technology to support their 
activities, rejecting the cyber cult allegation. 

He said believers have worked for computer-related firms to pay damages to 
victims of AUM crimes. The AUM Web site emphasizes that it has paid out 200 
million yen in damages. 

Asked about what he has been doing since his release Dec. 29 last year from 
Hiroshima Prison after serving a three-year term for perjury and document 
falsification, Joyu said he has listened to the woes of group members. 

The agency report said the cult is now run by Joyu and six executives, 
including nominal leader Tatsuko Muraoka, 50. 

After his release, Joyu lived in Yokohama until September, and then moved to 
various locations in Tokyo, dogged by residents' protests. He now lives in 
the capital's Ota Ward. 

Joyu gained fame through media exposure as AUM's spokesman until his arrest 
in October 1995. 

AUM has told the agency it had 1,151 followers as of Nov. 15, with 554 living 
in AUM facilities and 597 residing elsewhere. 

The agency, however, believe there are about 1,670 members -- about 650 in 
AUM facilities and 1,020 outside. 

The group said it has 10 facilities, but the agency says that figure is 
really 27. 

_______________________

Law puts brakes on Aum activities

("Japan Times," Dec. 20, 2000)

Although a year-old law to regulate dangerous organizations has put the 
brakes on the activities of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult still poses a potential 
threat to the public, Justice Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday.
Since Jan. 28, the Public Security Investigation Agency has carried out 15 
on-the-spot inspections, covering 39 Aum facilities nationwide, in accordance 
with the law that took effect on Dec. 27 last year.

The minister said that, through these inspections and through four mandatory 
periodical reports from Aum, the law has served its role in checking, to some 
extent, activities by the cult that had been causing public anxiety.

He said that the potential danger of the cult still exists, however, as 
jailed guru Shoko Asahara continues to wield immense power. 

_______________________

Aum suit against Mainichi rejected

("Japan Times," Dec. 19, 2000)

The Tokyo District Court on Monday rejected a 10 million yen damages suit 
filed by the Aum Shinrikyo cult against the Mainichi Shimbun over a report on 
the cult's alleged ongoing research on the nerve gas sarin.
Presiding Judge Takahisa Fukuda said in the ruling that the report in the 
Mainichi's May 26 morning editions did not say Aum, which now calls itself 
Aleph, is researching the deadly gas as an organization.

"There are deep-rooted anxieties among the general public about the cult," 
the judge said, concluding that the report could not have further damaged 
Aum's reputation in the public eye.

The Mainichi report, "Continuation of sarin research," said a female Aum 
member's notebook, seized by police, mentioned sarin's chemical formula.

_______________________

Tokyo court rejects AUM suit against Mainichi report

(Kyodo News Service, December 18, 2000)
  

TOKYO, Dec. 18 (Kyodo) - The Tokyo District Court on Monday rejected a 10 
million yen damages suit filed by the AUM Shinrikyo cult against the Mainichi 
Shimbun over a report on the cult's alleged ongoing research on the nerve gas 
sarin. 

Presiding Judge Takahisa Fukuda said in the ruling that the report in the 
Mainichi's May 26 morning editions did not say AUM is researching the deadly 
gas as an organization. 

''There are deep-rooted anxieties among the general public about the cult and 
it cannot be recognized that the report further undermines it,'' the judge 
said. 

The Mainichi report, ''Continuation of sarin research,'' said a female AUM 
member's notebook, seized by police, mentioned sarin's chemical formula. 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and a number 
of AUM members have been convicted of crimes or are on trial in serious 
criminal cases. These include the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway 
system, which killed 12 people and injured thousands. 

The group now calls itself Aleph. 

_______________________

Aum Left 2 Gold Ingots Behind

 
("Asahi Shimbun," December 3, 2000) 

Aum Shinrikyo members were in such a hurry to move out of a house they sold 
to the village of Tokigawa, Saitama Prefecture, they left two gold ingots 
behind that were worth 2 million yen, Asahi Shimbun learned Saturday. 

Village officials found the 1-kilogram ingots while cleaning up the 
three-story house in early October. They purchased the house from Aum for 45 
million yen in August. 

The house was one of two facilities that had accommodated twin sisters of a 
former senior member of the cult, their aunt and other followers from January 
1998 to last August. 

After finding the gold ingots, the officials handed them over to Saburo Abe, 
a court-appointed bankruptcy administrator of the cult, now renamed Aleph. 

Village chief Takashi Oosawa expressed surprise that the Aum occupants 
overlooked the gold ingots when they moved out. 

Village officials found the ingots wrapped in cloth inside a case that is 
normally used to store videocassette tapes. 

Since the village is now the rightful owner of the gold it has the right to 
sell the ingots, said Shigeo Sekine, chief of the general affairs section in 
the village office. 

But after consulting with Abe, the bankruptcy administrator, it was agreed 
the ingots should be sold to help victims of crimes perpetrated by the cult. 

The village had allowed the twin sisters to enroll at the local elementary 
school on condition they left the village in August. 

_______________________

Ex-AUM cultist member Ishii released from Wakayama prison

(Kyodo News Service, November 18, 2000)
  

WAKAYAMA, Nov. 18 (Kyodo) -  

Hisako Ishii, a former senior cultist in the AUM Shinrikyo sect, left 
Wakayama prison early Saturday after completing a term she received for 
helping AUM members allegedly involved in the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing evade 
arrest and other crimes. ...

In a statement she made at Kansai airport before leaving for Tokyo's Haneda 
airport, Ishii, 40, said she feels sorry for the victims of AUM crimes and 
has no plans to rejoin the cult, which now calls itself Aleph. ... 

Ishii also made a comment that appeared to contradict her promise not to 
return to the cult. "I want to know how the organization has changed, and if 
the religious group contacts me, I will think carefully about it," she said. 

Ishii said she intends to wait before making an announcement on a series of 
AUM-related crimes. 

Ishii is a onetime close aide of AUM founder Shoko Asahara and has three 
children by him. 

On Feb. 16 last year, the Tokyo District Court sentenced her to three years 
and eight months in prison for aiding AUM fugitives evade justice, burning a 
corpse and destroying evidence. She was released Saturday because her 
sentence included the time Ishii had already spent in detention and during 
her trial prior to the ruling. 

The court ruling said Ishii, who served as AUM's ''finance minister,'' gave 
35 million yen in cash and an automobile to several AUM followers immediately 
after their sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 
1995 which left 12 people dead and injured thousands. 

In June 1993, she incinerated the body of an AUM believer who died while 
undergoing ''religious training'' at a cult facility in Shizuoka Prefecture, 
the ruling said. Ishii also destroyed evidence concerning AUM's illegal 
purchase of a plot in Kumamoto Prefecture by submitting a false document to 
local prosecutors in October 1990. 

Ishii did not appeal the district ruling. She told the court she left AUM and 
no longer believes in its teachings. 

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is still on trial in a number 
of criminal cases, including the Tokyo subway gassing. 

_______________________

AUM facility searched for baking bread without license

(Kyodo News Service, Nov. 15, 2000)  

GIFU, Japan, Nov. 15 (Kyodo) - A food factory owned by the AUM Shinrikyo cult 
in Gifu Prefecture has been searched by officials of a municipal health 
center for allegedly baking a large quantity of bread for its members without 
a license, officials said Wednesday. 

The officials said they have found that the factory in Seki was producing 
200-300 loaves of bread a day, twice a week, using three bread makers. 

After the search, the cult, which has renamed itself Aleph, informed the 
health center it will stop bread production to avoid generating 
misunderstanding and will also have the machines removed, the officials said. 

The factory has long been licensed to produce candies for cult members but 
only last month began producing bread, which was not covered by the license, 
the officials said. Baking bread without a license could constitute a 
violation of the Food Sanitation Law. 

The health center requested that the cult apply for a license but the group 
refused, saying it is not necessary since the bread was only meant for 
consumption by its members, according to the officials. 

The health center previously conducted a search of the factory in May after 
receiving a tip that it was producing bread, but the center could not confirm 
production at that time. 

A number of AUM members have been convicted or are on trial in serious 
criminal cases, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway 
system, which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000. 

_______________________

AUM cultist nabbed for allegedly faking resident registration

(Kyodo News Service, October 24, 2000)  
  

TOKYO, Oct. 24 (Kyodo) - Police on Tuesday arrested a member of the AUM 
Shinrikyo cult for allegedly submitting a false resident registration 
document to a Tokyo ward office, and searched condominiums, the cult's 
facility and a personal computer shop. 

According to police investigations, Atsushi Ogata, 45, submitted a resident 
registration document to the Bunkyo Ward office in December last year, saying 
that he would move in from Adachi Ward, although he in fact moved into a 
condominium in Taito Ward the following month. 

Police apparently used the false registration case as a pretext to search 
several locations including the condo in Taito Ward, which police believe is 
used as an accommodation for other cult members and office to develop 
personal computer software. 

Police also searched the cult's facility in Adachi Ward, where Fumihiro Joyu, 
a senior cult member, lived from Sept. 20 to Oct. 8, a condominium in Kita 
Ward where Joyu is currently living, and a PC shop cult members opened in 
June in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district. 

Ogata is thought to be a computer specialist for the cult, which now calls 
itself Aleph. 

An AUM official attributed the false resident registration to confusion 
caused by efforts of local communities to prevent AUM members from taking 
residence within them. 

Some members of AUM have been convicted of crimes or are on trial in serious 
criminal cases, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway 
system that killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000. 

_______________________

Security agency inspects AUM facilities

(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 13, 2000)  
  

TOKYO, Oct. 13 (Kyodo) The Public Security Investigation Agency inspected a 
Tokyo facility and the Nagoya branch of AUM Shinrikyo on Friday in line with 
a law aimed at cracking down on the religious cult. 

It was the first search by the agency of the cult's facilities since Sept. 14 
and the 11th since it has begun searching AUM facilities. 

It was also the first time for the agency to inspect the Nagoya branch since 
AUM resumed its activities at the branch's rented building in Nishi Ward, 
agency sources said. 

The cult moved into the Shin Senju facility in Tokyo's Adachi Ward and the 
Nagoya branch in August. 

Police believe AUM uses the Tokyo facility to train its members, as followers 
are frequently seen entering and leaving it. 

Several AUM-related facilities are located in the ward, including a building 
where senior AUM member Fumihiro Joyu, 37, lived until Oct. 8 before moving 
to an apartment in neighboring Kita Ward. 

AUM had previously occupied the Nagoya building, vacating it late last 
December. When the cult resumed renting it in August, it promised the 
landlord it would stop holding religious seminars there. 

However, the activities resumed and AUM followers have frequented the 
building, according to investigators. 

The agency said it has been monitoring the branch, suspecting it may become 
AUM's new headquarters in central Japan. 

Under the law, enacted in December last year, occupants of AUM facilities who 
refuse or hinder police searches can face up to one year in prison. 

_______________________

4 charges dropped against Aum leader

("Yomiuri Shimbun," October 13, 2000)

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday approved the withdrawal of four illicit 
drug manufacturing charges against Aum Supreme Truth cult founder Chizuo 
Matsumoto, 45, better known as Shoko Asahara. 

Earlier this month, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office had applied 
to the court for the withdrawal of the charges. 

With Thursday's approval by presiding Judge Fumihiro Abe, the number of 
charges against Matsumoto has been reduced from 17 to 13. 

The prosecutors began proceedings on Oct. 6 on the 13th charge against 
Matsumoto, in which he allegedly ordered construction of a sarin gas plant. 
With the opening of the 13th case, court proceedings have now begun on all 
charges against Matsumoto. 

_______________________

Death penalty sought for ex-AUM member for sarin attack

(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 11, 2000)  
  

TOKYO, Oct. 11 (Kyodo) - Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the death penalty 
for a former member of the AUM Shinrikyo who allegedly took part in a 1994 
nerve-gas attack that killed seven people in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 

The prosecutors, who made their demand at the Tokyo District Court, said 
Noboru Nakamura, 33, also abducted the 68-year-old relative of an AUM 
follower in 1995 and conspired to kill a 27-year-old AUM member in 1994. 

Nakamura has pleaded not guilty to all the charges during earlier hearings at 
the court. 

In the sarin gas attack of June 27, 1994, Nakamura allegedly served as a 
lookout while other AUM members released the gas. The attack, that targeted a 
condominium where judges lived, killed nearby residents. 

Two other former AUM members who took part in the attack have already been 
sentenced. Satoru Hashimoto, 33, who drove a van equipped with a sprayer and 
a fan that released the deadly gas, was sentenced to death, and Takashi 
Tomita, 42, who drove another lookout van, was handed a 17-year prison term. 

Both men have appealed the rulings. 

_______________________

Senior AUM member Joyu moves to Tokyo's Kita Ward

(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 9, 2000)  

  
TOKYO, Oct. 9 (Kyodo) - Senior AUM Shinrikyo member Fumihiro Joyu has moved 
to an apartment in Tokyo's Kita Ward, near the cult's facility in Adachi Ward 
where he temporarily lived after leaving the sect's Yokohama branch last 
month, police sources said Monday. 

Joyu, 37, and several other AUM members left the facility around 10 p.m. 
Sunday for the apartment, some 10 kilometers west of the facility, according 
to the sources. 

Adachi Ward had requested the owner of the building to evict the AUM members 
and local residents had begun preparations for a protest movement. 

Joyu gave a letter dated Sept. 25 to the owner, in which he pledged to move 
out within two weeks. 

Kita Ward set up a task force on Monday headed by ward chief Masao Kitamoto 
to deal with incoming AUM members and work out measures to prevent the 
apartment from becoming the cult's new head office, ward officials said. 

Kitamoto called the move by Joyu and other AUM members to the ward ''very 
regrettable,'' as it could cause anxiety among residents and adversely affect 
their lives. 

''I will discuss this issue with the ward assembly and local people and 
immediately work out countermeasures,'' he said. 

Kita Ward has confirmed that the apartment in the seven-story building is the 
only place in the ward where AUM members reside, the officials said. 

According to the police, the apartment in Kita Ward was formerly used by AUM 
members to develop computer software. 

On Sept. 20, Joyu evacuated AUM's Yokohama branch and moved to a three-story 
building owned by a metal processing company in Adachi Ward. He had been 
living in the branch after he was released from Hiroshima Prison in late 
December after serving out a three-year term for perjury and document 
falsification. 

The Yokohama District Court on Sept. 6 ordered AUM to vacate its Yokohama 
branch, located in an apartment building, in line with demands by the 
building's residents. 

Joyu became well-known to the Japanese public through his media exposure as 
AUM's spokesman until his arrest in October 1995. 

_______________________

Lawyers defend axing charges against Asahara

("Japan Times," October 6, 2000)

Prosecutors on Thursday defended their decision to drop four drug-related 
charges against Shoko Asahara, saying the move is necessary to speed the Aum 
Shinrikyo founder's trial.
The defense called the decision arbitrary and an abuse of the prosecution's 
rights, but prosecutors argued that the move, of which the Tokyo District 
Court was notified Wednesday, "could not be helped."

Asahara's lawyers said the prosecutors' original plan to press 17 charges was 
intended to overwhelm the defense counsel and prevent a full defense of 
Asahara, taking advantage of public calls for the trial's immediate 
conclusion.

The dropped charges included the illegal production of drugs, of which 14 of 
Asahara's followers have already been found guilty.

The prosecutors said it was natural to make every effort to accelerate the 
trial and called on the defense to make increased efforts toward that end.

Meanwhile, a former senior Aum member testified during Thursday's hearing 
that he was ordered to visit Russia to learn how to manufacture "a weapon 
bigger than pistols" in 1993.

Kenichi Hirose, a former Aum scientist, who was sentenced in July to hang for 
releasing sarin in the deadly 1995 subway attack and for manufacturing a 
prototype assault rifle based on the Russian Army's AK-74, said that he 
believes Asahara thought manufacturing weapons was essential to create an 
"Aum kingdom."

Upon Asahara's order, he and three other cultists brought parts and other 
information on the Russian machinegun and gunpowder to Japan to create 
rifles, he said.

The cult allegedly planned to assemble 1,000 machineguns in 1994 and 1995. 

_______________________

4 charges against AUM guru dropped to speed up trial

(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 4, 2000)  

  
TOKYO, Oct. 4 (Kyodo) - Prosecutors on Wednesday notified the Tokyo District 
Court that they have dropped four of the 17 charges against AUM Shinrikyo 
cult founder Shoko Asahara in order to speed up his trial. 

The charges withdrawn by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office relate 
to Asahara's suspected involvement in the illegal manufacture of 
amphetamines, mescaline, thiopental and LSD. 

The court has yet to begin proceedings against Asahara, whose real name is 
Chizuo Matsumoto, on the four charges. 

Officials of the prosecutors' office said there were no victims involved in 
the alleged drug manufacture and that withdrawal of the four charges will not 
affect the severity of the punishment they expect Asahara to eventually 
receive. 

It is rare for prosecutors to drop charges in order to speed up a trial, the 
officials said. 

Charges related to the drug production case were also dropped for former 
senior AUM members Seiichi Endo and Masami Tsuchiya, who still face charges 
related to their suspected involvement in the 1995 sarin gas attack on 
Tokyo's subways. 

The court is expected shortly to approve withdrawal of the drug production 
charges, meaning Asahara's trial will be shortened by several months, legal 
sources said. 

In December 1997, prosecutors cut the number of victims named in the 
indictment of Asahara over the Tokyo sarin gas attack from some 4,000 to 18, 
also to speed up his trial. 

Koichi Ueda of the Tokyo prosecutors said, ''We have done the best to speed 
up the pace of the trial and dropping some charges is the best way to realize 
the goal.'' 

Asahara's trial opened in April 1996 but has yet to reach the halfway stage, 
at which the defense starts putting its case. There have been 169 hearings so 
far. 

Prosecutors are to start addressing the 13th charge, relating to the alleged 
mass production of sarin gas, on Friday. 

 _______________________

Children of Aum's disciples caught in crossfire 
Public sentiment toward Japan's most notorious cult is making life 
intolerable for the children of its former members. 

by Hiroshi Ishida Daisuke Nakai ("Asahi Shimbun," Oct. 4, 2000) 

Public hatred for the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect dies hard. The latest 
symbol of this is the fact that the children of one of its key leaders have 
been prevented from attending school, even though formal education is 
guaranteed by the Constitution. 

The children are those of Chizuo Matsumoto, 43, currently on trial for 
murder: he is accused of being the mastermind behind a number of murders 
linked to the sect. Four of his children live with three women in a two-story 
house, part of a complex in the city of Ryugasaki, Ibaraki Prefecture. Three 
of the children are elementary school students-two boys, aged 6 and 7; and a 
girl, 11. 

On the morning of Sept. 1, when a nearby elementary school was filling up 
with pupils returning for the start of second semester, three men in business 
suits stood like sentinels outside the house, wearing armbands emblazoned 
with the slogan: ``Down with Aum.'' 

They were there to stop the three Aum children from going to school. 

A dozen wary schoolchildren in the neighborhood took a detour around the 
house, instead of their usual route which passes right by it. 

The 11-year-old girl has moved home four times since leaving the cult's 
central commune in the village of Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture, in 1995 
after her father's arrest. 

She has since managed to attend school for just two semesters because of 
objections from residents and local authorities. 

Aum Shinrikyo was stripped of its legal status as a religious organization 
following the 1995 sarin gassing of Tokyo subways and other acts of 
indiscriminate terrorism. 

It was also declared bankrupt. It later renamed itself Aleph and presented 
itself as a volunteer entity, but society continues to shun its adult members 
and their children. A blockade 

Since the start of the new semester, the trio have undertaken their own study 
program at home. They rarely go out, for fear of encountering trouble. 

On the opening day of the new term, a dozen parents blockaded the school 
gates to prevent Matsumoto's children from attending the ceremony. 

``If they come to school here, we will move all our children to other 
schools,'' said one determined-looking parent who declined to be identified. 

On Aug. 27, about 1,500 residents surrounded the house, demanding the 
children leave the neighborhood. ``Out with Aum,'' one shouted. ``You devils 
have no human rights,'' yelled another. 

Just over a month earlier, on July 20, the children had left their previous 
home, in a dwelling occupied by the cult in the city of Otawara, in 
neighboring Tochigi Prefecture. 

Next day, Ryugasaki City Hall announced it would not permit them to move into 
the municipality or attend school there. 

In August last year, City Hall decided to refuse any applications for 
resident registration made by or on behalf of Aum followers. Children are 
prohibited from attending school in the city unless they are registered with 
the municipal office. 

Council offices across the country began refusing entry applications from Aum 
cultists in the spring of last year. 

Last spring in the Saitama Prefecture village of Tokigawa, children of the 
defendant Matsumoto and of his former aides became the first to be denied 
formal schooling due to such action. Minister at a loss 

According to the sect, resident registration has been denied by village, town 
and city halls in at least 10 prefectures. As of last month, the fate of 
about 70 applications remained undecided. 

A flurry of refusals in May followed the move of sect leader Tatsuko Muraoka 
to the city of Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture. Other official bodies in the 
vicinity quickly copied the municipality's lead, announcing that Aum members 
and their children would be barred from premises they controlled. 

Education Minister Tadamori Oshima, 53, referring to Ryugasaki at a news 
conference Aug. 25, said: ``The bottom line is that the right to education 
must be fully respected.'' 

But he added: ``It is essential that residents' anxieties be removed. I hope 
the people concerned will make efforts aimed at bringing about a dialogue.'' 
He did not propose any specific step toward that end. 

Anxiety is certainly a common thread running through the anti-Aum boycotts 
instigated by Ryugasaki City Hall and local residents. But any move toward 
``dialogue'' seems to be going nowhere. 

A former female Aum follower who is one of the women now living with 
Matsumoto's children in Ryugasaki said: ``I want them (residents) to come and 
look around my home and see how we live. We're not out to cause any 
trouble.'' 

Earlier last month, she sent a letter to the mayor, Takehisa Kushida, and a 
representative of the protesting residents, offering to talk things over. But 
the citizens rejected her request on the ground that dialogue would be 
tantamount to recognizing the right of residence. 

Mayor Kushida said: ``Residents still remember what Aum did in the past. I 
don't know of anything I could say to change their minds.'' 

He explained the dilemma this way: ``There is a very wide gap between 
principle and reality. I think local government leaders across the country 
are keeping their fingers crossed that (Aum people) don't come to live in 
their communities.'' 

The right to education is spelled out not only in the Constitution but in the 
Education Basic Law as well. Yet municipal bodies and residents continue to 
reject Aum children, not just adult followers of the cult and their 
associates. 

Despite such firmness, some Ryugasaki residents-while standing foursquare 
against Aum itself -acknowledge privately that barring Aum children from 
school attendance violates the Constitution and is discriminatory. 

An unidentified woman who took part in an anti-Aum demonstration along with 
her children said: ``I can't forgive Aum. I can't abide them. But as a parent 
I want to set an example for my own children. 

``But then I have to get along with other residents, too. If they (Aum 
cultists) hadn't come here, I wouldn't have to demonstrate like this.'' 

A man in his 60s spoke in the same vein: ``I wish they weren't here. There is 
no way he should be forgiven the sarin attack and the killing'' of anti-Aum 
lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family. 

``It is a pity that his children are getting blamed for what he did. They did 
nothing wrong.'' A test case 

In Otawara, Matsumoto's children were allowed to attend school temporarily, 
on condition they left town after a set ``grace period.'' 

The arrangement had been brokered by the cult's bankruptcy administrator, 
Saburo Abe. At the time, Mayor Kazuo Chiho endorsed the deal, saying: ``We 
want to make it a test case of how to maintain a goodwill relationship 
between our community and the sect.'' 

No particular problems presented themselves during the semester that the 
children attended school there. ``My oldest child taught me a lesson,'' one 
parent said anonymously. ``When I called them Aum kids, my child snapped: 
`You ought to call them Matsumoto-san.''' 

Ikuko Sato, principal of the elementary school where Matsumoto's children 
attended classes, said: ``If anyone asked me, I'd say they were quite fit to 
live with other people.'' 

Matsumoto's children themselves seem to have fond memories of Otawara. ``I 
want to go to school because I think it's important,'' his 11-year-old 
daughter wrote in a recent essay. 

``Home is not a good place to study subjects such as physical education, 
music and homemaking. And school is the best place to make friends.'' `I'll 
go, even they...' 

Supporters say her attitude to school changed after she and her siblings came 
to Otawara. When barred from school in Asahi village, Ibaraki Prefecture, she 
responded by saying she didn't want she didn't want to go to school anymore. 
Now she says: ``I'll go even if they harass me.'' 

But many in Ryugasaki consider the ``Otawara experiment'' a resounding 
failure. 

``It just perpetuated the problem,'' said one of the protesters who preferred 
not to be named. ``We could put up with it if it's only for three months or 
so.'' 

Citizens petitioned Ibaraki's prefectural government to separate the children 
from the former cult members living with them and educate the children at a 
welfare institution. This request was formally rejected. 

Meanwhile, the City of Niiza, Saitama Prefecture-in a notable departure from 
the national boycott of Aum disciples and their children-has adopted a new 
policy that states residence applications will be rejected only when they are 
framed with the purpose of converting particular premises into a communal 
dwelling. 

Tetsuo Shimomura, a Waseda University professor of education, supports the 
policy change, saying: ``Even if children are not registered as Ryugasaki 
residents, the board of education there should permit them to attend school 
on an interim basis. 

``Residents' feelings (against admission) are understandable, but there is no 
reason to reject them on the basis of fear. There is no reason, either, to 
reject children who have completed their first semester. Niiza's decision 
represents a reasonable judgment.'' 

Koichi Yokota, who lectures on the Constitution at Kyushu University, takes a 
similar view. ``Residents' unease is understandable, considering what the 
sect did and its generally irresponsible stance,'' he said. 

``However, residence and education are basic rights guaranteed under the 
Constitution. So it is wrong to reject applications on grounds of generalized 
anxiety. This is particularly true where children are affected. 

``Communal living could have repercussions for public welfare, but so long as 
they are living as individual families there should be no problem. The City 
of Niiza's response appears to be a compromise between community fears and 
the right of residence.'' 

  _______________________

Court to drop AUM drug charges

("Mainichi Shimbun," Oct. 4, 2000)  
 

In a rare move, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has decided to 
drop four drug-related charges against AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Chizuo 
Matsumoto to hasten his sentencing, it has been learned. 
Four charges that Matsumoto, who is also known as Shoko Asahara, was involved 
in the illegal manufacture of amphetamines, mescaline, thiopental and LSD, 
will likely be dropped in mid-October, prosecution sources said. 

Prosecutors said they took into consideration the feelings of victims of the 
cult's illegal activities when making the decision, which is expected to 
hasten Matsumoto's sentencing by about six months. 

They added that the dropping of the charges would not likely affect Asahara's 
final sentencing, as no one was victimized as a result of the manufacture of 
the drugs. 

Since Matsumoto's first trial in April 1996, the court has held 169 public 
hearings on charges involving the former guru, but procedures have been 
started on only 12 of the 17 charges against him. Prosecutors said dropping 
the charges, which is expected to be formally announced in the Tokyo District 
Court next week, was in response to victim's requests for a swift trial. 

"With regard to the shortening of the trial, this means we 'will do what we 
should do,' " a senior prosecutor said on condition of anonymity. "The rest 
is up to defending lawyers." 

Shizue Takahashi, whose husband died following AUM Shinrikyo's sarin gas 
attack on Tokyo's subway systems in 1995, said she was relieved at the 
decision. 

"I had requested that prosecutors withdraw charges so that the trials would 
quickly finish," she said. 

"I think this has come too late, but I'm relieved. 

"For the sake of the people who still believe in the doctrines of the cult, 
which has changed its name to Aleph, I think what Matsumoto did needs to be 
made clear quickly through a ruling," she said. 

A spokesman for Matsumoto's legal team said he had mixed feelings about the 
withdrawal of the charges. 

"As a generalization, this means the defendant's criminal responsibility has 
been lessened, so as a lawyer, I am pleased. However, even if the four 
charges are called off, because they carry only light penalties it will have 
little effect on the sentencing of Matsumoto as a whole. 

"We have heard claims that defending lawyers are prolonging trial 
proceedings, but in a state where we have no communication of ideas with the 
defendant, it is unavoidable that questioning is protracted," he said. 

In a Mainichi Shimbun poll of victims of the cult's activities that was taken 
in March, 16 of the 62 respondents said they wanted some of the charges 
against Matsumoto dropped, while 28 said they wanted hearings on all of the 
incidents. 

Almost all of the respondents, however, said they wanted the trials to 
proceed more quickly. 

The 12th charge against Matsumoto, involving the cult's alleged production of 
automatic assault rifles, began in July this year. Several other trials 
against AUM members, including those involved in the gas attacks that killed 
12 people and injured thousands, were completed in June and July, with 
sentences including death and life imprisonment being handed down. 

 _______________________ 

Some charges dropped against doomsday cult guru

by Elisabeth Duke ("UK-Independent,"  October 3, 2000)

Some of the 17 criminal charges against the founder of the domesday cult that 
killed 12 people and injured thousands in a 1995 Tokyo subway gassing, are to 
be dropped by prosecutors in a bid to shorten his trial. 

The case of guru Shoko Asahara, accused of masterminding the subway attack 
and 16 other crimes, has dragged on for four and half years, with court 
proceedings taking place on only 12 of the cases. 

The Tokyo District Prosecutors' Office plans to drop the other four criminal 
charges, which involved illegal drug production but no casualties, according 
to the Yomiuri newspaper. 

Prosecutors believe that would have little effect on the final ruling and 
could reduce the trial time by several months, the report said. 

The Kyodo News agency said that prosecutors plan to notify the court about 
its decision as early as next week. The prosecutors and the Tokyo District 
Court refused to confirm the news reports. 

In Japan, trials are notoriously lengthy, in part because of a shortage of 
judges and lawyers. From the beginning, experts have warned that Asahara's 
trial could take up to a decade at the district court level alone, followed 
by another 10 years of appeals. 

Since Asahara's trial began in April 1996, the court has held nearly 170 
public hearings in the subway gassing and the 11 other crimes, including the 
murder of an anti–cult lawyer and his family and another nerve gas attack in 
central Japan in 1994. 

Several top cultists have been sentenced to death in the 1995 subway gassing 
and in other crimes. 

_______________________

4 charges to be dropped to hasten Matsumoto's trial

("Yomiuri Shimbun," October 3, 2000)

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is planning to drop four of 17 
charges against Aum Supreme Truth cult founder and former guru Chizuo 
Matsumoto, 45, to speed up his trial, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Monday. 

According to sources, the prosecutors are likely to drop charges in 
mid-October that Matsumoto, also known by the assumed name Shoko Asahara, 
illicitly manufactured four kinds of drugs--amphetamines, the hallucinogens 
mescaline and LSD, and the barbiturate thiopental. 

It is said to be quite unusual for prosecutors to drop chargesonce they have 
been filed. After considering public opinion and the feelings of Aum victims, 
however, the prosecutors concluded it would be better to avoid prolonged 
court hearings by scrapping the four charges for crimes in which no one was 
victimized, the sources said. 

Although 4-1/2 years have passed since Matsumoto's first court hearing was 
held in April 1996, procedures have been started on only 12 of the 17 charges 
on which he was indicted. 

The Tokyo District Court so far has held a total of 169 hearings on charges 
involving Matsumoto. 

Court procedures already have started in the major charges against him, such 
as the sarin gas attacks in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and on the Tokyo 
subway system, as well as the murders of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his 
family. 

Hearings on the cult's alleged production of assault rifles, the 12th charge 
against Matsumoto, started in July. 

Meanwhile, the first series of trials for seven of Matsumoto's followers were 
completed in June and July, when the Tokyo District Court handed down 
sentences, including the death penalty and life in prison with the 
possibility of parole. Among those to receive the death penalty was Yasuo 
Hayashi, 42, who released sarin gas in the 1995 attack on the subway system. 

The rulings in all of the cases stipulated that Matsumoto was the mastermind 
behind them. 

As for the trial of Matsumoto himself, however, it is still difficult to tell 
when the prosecutors will finish establishing the facts in the cases, which 
is viewed as half the battle. The question of when he will be sentenced is 
even more unpredictable. 

Victims of Aum crimes and bereaved family members reportedly have expressed a 
strong desire to see the entire process sped up. 

Therefore, the prosecutors have put priority on establishing facts related to 
the murder and attempted murder charges including the two sarin gas attacks. 
Since last spring, however, prosecutors were looking into the possibility of 
dropping charges for crimes in which nobody was victimized. 

As a result, they reached a conclusion that the four drug charges could be 
dropped for the following reasons: 

-- Their scrapping will not affect the assessment of the other charges 
against Matsumoto. 

-- Matsumoto already has been recognized as the mastermind in the cases in 
which his followers were sentenced. 

-- Only two people among those charged with the illicit manufacture of drugs 
are still on trial at the Tokyo District Court. 

_______________________

Prosecutors to drop 4 charges against AUM founder Asahara

(Kyodo News Service, Oct. 3, 2000)  

TOKYO, Oct. 3 (Kyodo) - Tokyo prosecutors plan to drop four of the 17 charges 
against AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara in a bid to speed up the 
pace of his ongoing trials, prosecution sources said Tuesday. 

The sources believe the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will notify 
the Tokyo District Court of the plan next week. 

The court has yet to begin proceedings on the four cases in which Asahara, 
whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is accused of involvement in the illegal 
manufacture of amphetamines, mescaline, thiopental and LSD. 

The prosecutors decided to withdraw the four indictments to speed up trials 
because hearings on them would not have a significant effect on Asahara's 
final sentencing. No one was killed in the cases, the sources added. 

The cancellation of the hearings for the four cases would shorten his entire 
trial period by several months. 

The court has so far held 169 public hearings in connection with Asahara's 
involvement in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system, the 
murder of anti-AUM lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family and the 1994 sarin 
gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 

The Asahara trials have dragged on for four and a half years since his first 
hearing in April 1996. 

The court in July began hearings on the cult's alleged production of 
automatic rifles, the 12th charge against him. 

Various AUM followers have been found guilty of or are still on trial for 
numerous crimes including the subway gassing, which killed 12 people and 
injured more than 5,000. 

_______________________

Nagoya ward accepts residence of regional AUM leader

(Kyodo News Service, September 30, 2000)
  

NAGOYA, Sept. 30 (Kyodo) - Nagoya's Nishi Ward has accepted an application 
for residence in the ward filed by a 42-year-old female leader of AUM 
Shinrikyo's Nagoya branch, ward officials said Saturday. 

The woman in mid-September submitted the application to move into the ward to 
live in a house suspected to belong to an AUM member. Such applications are 
required when people move from one municipality to another. 

In late August the ward rejected a similar request by two female AUM members 
to move into a building in the ward on the grounds that accepting the 
application would intensify anxiety among local residents. 

The officials explained that during the examination of the woman's 
application, the address of her future residence was confirmed to be 
different from that of the other AUM members' application. 

_______________________

AUM bigwigs pay respects to cult victims  

("Mainichi Shimbun," Sept. 12, 2000)  
 

Two executives of AUM Shinrikyo have paid their respects to the souls of an 
anti-AUM lawyer and his family, who they killed in 1989, by visiting sites 
where cult members had dumped their remains. 
Hiroshi Araki, the doomsday cult's public relations chief, and his deputy, 
Seiwa Ito, visited Uozu, Toyama Prefecture; neighboring Nadachi in Niigata 
Prefecture and Omachi, Nagano Prefecture on Sunday. They laid flowers at the 
memorials of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, his wife Satoko, 29, and their 
14-month-old son Tatsuhiko. 

They first visited the mountainous area in Uozu where members of the cult, 
which now calls itself Aleph, discarded Satoko's body. 

They placed a card written by Araki that read, "We are very sorry Satoko. We 
will live the rest of our lives with the fact that we have committed a crime 
that can never been atoned for. We did not have the guts to face to the fact 
of life at the time (of the killing)." 

Then the pair drove to the site of Sakamoto's shallow grave in Nadachi's 
Mount Okenashi. Araki and Ito laid a bouquet of flowers and prayed at a 
memorial dedicated to Sakamoto. 

Araki said he was there to pray for the souls of the Sakamotos as a 
representative of the cult. 

"When we look back at what we've done in the past, we have no choice but to 
accept whatever criticism comes. However, we decided that the first thing we 
have to do is to apologize for the deaths," Araki said. 

"We truly regret what we have done in the past, and promise that we'll never 
repeat our past mistakes." 

The AUM pair also went to the place where Tatsuhiko's body was buried, and 
prayed there for nearly 10 minutes. 

However, Sakamoto's colleagues questioned the true intention of the pair's 
actions. 

"This performance is nothing but a public relations stunt," a colleague, who 
wished to remain anonymous, said. 

Uozu locals erected barricades to block roads to Satoko's memorial in protest 
at the cult's gesture of reconciliation, forcing Araki and Ito to walk some 
12 kilometers to and from the location. 

AUM members stormed the Sakamotos' apartment in November 1989, and killed 
them by giving lethal injections. The lawyer was helping families of AUM 
members to pull their loved ones out of the group, and was one of the most 
vocal critics of the doomsday cult. 

Police, however, failed to connect the disappearance of the Sakamotos with 
AUM Shinrikyo until 1995. 

Their bodies were found in September 1995 - some six months after the cult 
carried out the fatal gas attack on the Tokyo subway system - based on 
confessions of AUM members. 

Three of the family's killers, Kazuaki Okazaki, Satoru Hashimoto and Kiyohide 
Hayakawa have been sentenced to death for the murders. 

Two more AUM members, including Tomomitsu Niimi, have been charged over the 
killings. 
 

_______________________

Hate Aum's teachings, not its followers

 
("Asahi Shimbun" (Editorial), September 12, 2000) 

In his article in Asahi Shimbun's ``Rondan'' opinion column over the weekend, 
former Lower House member Hiroshi Miyazawa began his argument by saying: ``As 
a person who has long been involved with national and local administration 
and legislative work in the Diet, there is something I cannot understand.'' 

In his political career, Miyazawa also served as justice minister and 
governor of Hiroshima Prefecture. In his article, he referred to the fact 
that local governments across the country have been turning away the children 
whose parents are affiliated with the Aum Shinrikyo cult, refusing to let 
them enroll at local schools or even move into the area. 

The Education Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry, Miyazawa wrote, seem to 
be turning a blind eye to this widespread practice. But isn't this 
discriminatory measure highly questionable? 

That municipalities are having a hard time dealing with such children 
deserves sympathy, the former Diet member went on to say. But turning them 
away constitutes a violation of the basic human rights of these children and 
a clear infringement of the Constitution. 

It was not the first time that such opinions had been presented. But many 
local government chiefs rejected them, even while acknowledging their 
correctness. ``Intellectually, we know we should let the children in, but we 
can't do so when we consider the feelings some parents hold against them,'' 
some explained. ``In this case, the gulf is too wide between ethics and 
reality,'' others argued. 

As justice minister, Miyazawa decided that since Aum Shinrikyo was still 
considered to be a dangerous group despite the arrest of its top leaders, 
there was no choice but to institute procedures for invoking the Subversive 
Activities Prevention Law. 

In his ``Rondan'' article, he wrote he had ``some'' knowledge of the 
realities of the cult. Having served as governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, he 
must be familiar with the circumstances of cities, towns and villages.This 
``politically correct'' argument, coming from a person of Miyazawa's 
background, naturally is quite convincing. 

In Saitama Prefecture, for example, all 49 towns and villages and 39 of its 
43 cities maintain a policy of turning away Aum followers and their families 
when they try to move in. Such policies proliferated after the city of 
Kawaguchi refused to let them move in in the summer of 1999. 

In the meantime, the Saitama cities of Niiza and Tokorozawa recently dropped 
their anti-Aum policies. Niiza decided to turn away Aum followers and their 
families only when they seek to relocate en masse. ``It is the teachings of 
Aum Shinrikyo, not its individual followers, that are to be hated,'' said a 
spokesman for Niiza city hall. 

Miyazawa wrote: ``In a law-abiding country, no one can say the widespread 
public sentiment against Aum Shinrikyo allows municipalities to treat its 
followers differently from ordinary citizens under national laws.'' 

This seems to offer local government chiefs something to consider when they 
find themselves wondering how to handle Aum followers wishing to move into 
their area. (Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 10) 
 

_______________________

2 senior AUM members lay flowers for slain lawyer, family

(Kyodo News Service, Sept. 10, 2000)
  

NIIGATA, Japan, Sept. 10 (Kyodo) - Two senior members of AUM Shinrikyo laid 
flowers Sunday to the sites where the bodies of an anti-AUM lawyer and his 
family were hidden after their murder by AUM members in 1989, marking the 
first such act by the cult. 

The cult's public relations chief Hiroshi Araki and his deputy Seiwa Ito 
visited Nadachi town in Niigata Prefecture and Uozu in neighboring Toyama 
Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast to mourn lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, 
and Sakamoto's wife Satoko, 29.  ...

_______________________

Court orders cultists to vacate:

Chance of more Aum crimes cited in Yokohama eviction

("Japan Times," September 7, 2000)

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The Yokohama District Court on Wednesday ordered Aum 
Shinrikyo to vacate its branch office in a Yokohama apartment building, 
supporting a request by the building's management association.
Presiding Judge Susumu Suenaga handed down the eviction order, saying it was 
possible Aum members could again commit heinous crimes, making it difficult 
for the building's other tenants to feel secure and live peacefully.

The Aum office, located in a building in Yokohama's Naka Ward, is the home of 
37-year-old Fumihiro Joyu, a senior member of the cult who was released from 
prison in Hiroshima last December after completing a three-year jail term for 
perjury. 

Police have been put on alert around the building because right wing groups 
have staged periodic protests against the cult.

According to the order, Aum opened its Yokohama branch at the apartment 
around 1989. ...

_______________________

Niiza revokes ban on Aum settlers

("Yomiuri Shimbun," September 6, 2000)

URAWA -- The municipal government of Niiza, Saitama Prefecture, has made an 
about-face on its earlier refusal of residence to followers of the Aum 
Supreme Truth cult and the school registration of their children and has now 
allowed them to settle in Niiza and send their children to school there on 
the condition that they do not establish a cult foothold or live in groups in 
the city, it was learned Tuesday. 

Niiza is the nation's first municipal government to have changed its policy 
prohibiting settlement by Aum followers and their children. 

Many municipal governments across the country have adamantly refused to allow 
Aum followers to register as residents in their towns and cities or to let 
their children to study there for fear the followers would transfer or extend 
their footholds to their municipalities. 

Niiza Mayor Kenji Suda said the about-face was made because his government 
cannot keep on violating the law that guarantees children's right to an 
education. 

The policy change, however, is controversial because although the municipal 
government decided in April to accept Aum followers and their children, it 
did not formally inform the assembly or local residents of the decision. 

In August last year, the refusal of Tsurugashima, also in Saitama Prefecture, 
to accept residence and public school registrations from Aum followers and 
their children prompted most municipal governments in the prefecture to 
follow suit. The following month, Niiza adopted its basic policy to reject 
Aum followers. 

Lawyers, however, argued that the policy violated the basic human rights of 
Aum followers, which are guaranteed by the Constitution. 

When the municipal government of Tokigawamura in the prefecture refused to 
let the twin sisters of a convicted former Aum member study there, the 
prefectural and central government pointed out in February that the 
children's right to receive an education should be respected. 

Suda then asked a city council--made up of municipal officials--in charge of 
dealing with the Aum Supreme Truth cult to review the basic policy on the 
assumption that the municipal government would lose if Aum members filed a 
lawsuit against it and that the municipal government could not remain in 
violation of the law. 

On April 28, the municipal government's basic policy of refusing Aum members' 
residence registrations was changed to one of refusing residence 
registrations by those followers who wanted to live in groups. 

Residence by individual Aum members or families will in principle be 
accepted. The ban on the education of Aum children at public schools was 
completely lifted. Suda said he still resolutely opposes the establishment of 
a foothold by Aum members and he requires them to obey the law. 

Suda said he did not inform the assembly or local residents as the residence 
and schooling issues do not need assembly approval. He said he is simply 
trying to implement the policy without making waves and has not changed his 
policy on dealing with Aum members. 

Assembly member Kunio Mimura, chairman of Shinwakai, a conservative bloc in 
the assembly, said he was upset that the municipal government adopted such an 
important policy without informing the assembly. 

He added that, since any kind of Aum presence would be troublesome for Niiza, 
his group would study measures to deal with Aum followers. 

Shoko Egawa, a journalist who has long covered the cult, said Suda did his 
duty as the city's mayor. 

She said that if Niiza is the only municipality to accept Aum members, it may 
find itself flooded with cult followers, adding that she hopes other cities 
and towns will follow Niiza's lead. 

_______________________

Court orders AUM to vacate Yokohama office

(Kyodo News Service, September 6, 2000)
  

YOKOHAMA, Sept. 6 (Kyodo) - The Yokohama District Court on Wednesday ordered 
the AUM Shinrikyo cult to vacate its branch office in a Yokohama apartment 
building, supporting a request by the building's management association. 

Presiding Judge Susumu Suenaga handed down the eviction order, saying it was 
possible AUM members could again commit heinous crimes, making it difficult 
for the building's other tenants to feel secure and live peacefully. 

The AUM office, located in a building in Yokohama's Naka Ward, is the home of 
37-year-old Fumihiro Joyu, a senior member of the cult who was released from 
prison in Hiroshima last December after completing a three-year jail term for 
perjury.  ...

_______________________

Tax bureau rejects complaint from Aum

("Yomiuri Shimbun," August 22, 2000)

The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau has informed two Tokyo-based
computer retailers affiliated with the Aum Supreme Truth cult that it has
rejected their complaint over having to pay about 800 million yen in back
taxes, including penalties, sources said Monday. 

The two companies, Poseidon in Chiyoda Ward and SBR in Taito Ward,
have one month in which to file an appeal with the bureau. But as the
bureau has been unable to contact the presidents of the two firms and
the content of the complaint is ambiguous, tax authorities say the firms'
complaint appears to have been merely a ploy to gain time. 

The bureau plans to begin collecting the taxes and to seize the stores,
the sources said. The two stores were the cash cows of the
Aum-affiliated computer business. In late March, the bureau informed the
two companies they had failed to report 1.2 billion yen in income and
asked them to pay 800 million yen in back taxes, including consumption
tax and penalties. 

Both companies stopped doing business after they were investigated in
June last year. The two companies filed the complaint on May 29 with the
bureau in Otemachi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, the sources said. ...

_______________________

AUM vacates 2 buildings in Saitama village

(Kyodo News Service, August 20, 2000)  

  
URAWA, Japan, Aug. 20 (Kyodo) - Members of the AUM Shinrikyo cult on Sunday 
morning vacated two buildings in the village of Tokigawa in Saitama 
Prefecture. 

Nine people -- including the twin daughters of a 39-year-old former senior 
AUM female member -- had been living in one of the buildings since 1998. 

The village has decided to purchase the facility from AUM for 45 million yen. 

The group members agreed with village officials earlier this year to decamp 
from the facility by Aug. 20 as a condition for allowing the 6-year-old twins 
to attend an elementary school in the municipality for one semester from 
April. ...

_______________________

Aum followers down by 10: report

("Japan Times," August 16, 2000)

The Aum Shinrikyo religious group had 1,140 members as of Aug. 1, down 10 
from three months ago, according to a report the group submitted Tuesday to 
the Public Security Investigation Agency.
The number of followers living at Aum facilities was 549, down 17, while the 
number of outside members was 591, up seven, according to the report.

The group has 11 facilities in Japan, which is unchanged, the report says.

The report is the third of its kind. Under a law enacted last December to 
crack down on the group, Aum is required to file a report every three months 
detailing the number of its followers, their names and addresses, the group's 
properties and other information.

Aum founder Shoko Asahara is on trial in a number of criminal cases, 
including one for the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which 
killed 12 people and injured thousands. 

_______________________

AUM reports 1,140 members, down 10 from May

(Kyodo News Service, August 15, 2000)  
  

TOKYO, Aug. 15 (Kyodo) - The AUM Shinrikyo religious group had 1,140 members 
as of Aug. 1, down 10 from three months ago, according to a report the group 
submitted Tuesday to the Public Security Investigation Agency. 

The number of followers living at AUM facilities was 549, down 17, while the 
number of outside members was 591, up seven, according to the report. 

The group has 11 facilities in Japan, which is unchanged, the report says. 

The report is the third of its kind. Under a law enacted last December to 
crack down on the group, AUM is required to file a report every three months 
detailing the number of its followers, their names and addresses, the group's 
properties and other information. 

AUM founder Shoko Asahara is on trial in a number of criminal cases, 
including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which killed 
12 people and injured thousands. 

_______________________

30% of subway gas attack survivors still suffer from stress

 (Kyodo News Service, August 9, 2000)  
  

TOKYO, Aug. 9 (Kyodo) - About 30% of the survivors of the 1995 nerve gas 
attack on the capital's subway system by the AUM Shinrikyo cult still suffer 
from stress-induced disorders resulting from the incident, a support group 
for the victims said Wednesday. 

Medical examinations conducted on 362 victims between March and April in 
Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo, showed they suffered from 
post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the group, led by Saburo Abe, a 
lawyer and bankruptcy administrator of AUM, which now calls itself Aleph. 

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder include sleep disorders, 
depression and anxiety. 

The examination included eyesight and blood tests, as well as diagnostic 
interviews, the group said. 

According to the results of the examinations, 117 victims showed symptoms of 
the illness. 

Among the 117, 13 said they still avoid riding subway trains, and 60% said 
they suffer from poor vision. ...

_______________________

AUM group notifies Saitama village of moving plans

(Kyodo News Service, August 2, 2000)  
  

URAWA, Japan, Aug. 2 (Kyodo) - Five people living in an AUM Shinrikyo cult 
facility have notified the village of Tokigawa in Saitama Prefecture that 
they are moving out, sources close to the five said Wednesday. 

The group includes the twin daughters of 39-year-old Hisako Ishii, a former 
AUM cultist serving a prison sentence for AUM-related crimes.  ...

AUM, which renamed itself Aleph in January, is accused of a number of crimes, 
including the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing that caused 12 deaths and injured 
more than 5,000. 

_______________________

Japan's creaking justice system catches up with sect killers

(AFP, July 30, 2000) 

Japan's creaking justice system is finally catching up with the doomsday 
cultists who spread Nazi-invented Sarin gas inthe Tokyo subways in March 1995.

But their guru, Shoko Asahara, alleged mastermind of the March 1995 rush-hour 
subway gassing that killed 12 people and injured thousands, is expected to be the last to face justice.

Seven of his once-devoted disciples have already been condemned to death by 
hanging -- four in the past month alone -- and another five face life in prison.

Only five followers have yet to hear a verdict for major crimes, ranging from 
poison gas attacks to strangulations, and those are expected within two years.

But Asahara, who faces 17 charges including murder for masterminding the 
subway attack, is likely to elude a final sentence for more than a decade, legal analysts say.

"It cannot help but take a lot of time because Asahara is involved in all the 
cases," said Tokyo's Chuo University criminal law honorary professor Yasumasa Shimomura.

"The Aum Sarin (gas) case is totally unprecedented," Shimomura told AFP. "I 
am afraid that it will take roughly 10 years to complete the whole of his trial."

The 45-year-old sect guru, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is still in 
the first stage of his complex trial, which started at the Tokyo District Court in April 1996.

Prosecutors have only finished outlining their evidence for 11 of the 17 
charges. Asahara's lawyers have not even started giving their own side of the evidence.

While most of the followers admitted their crimes at least in part, their  leader has pleaded not guilty.

He has consistently attempted to disrupt proceedings, speaking English, 
chanting supposedly religious incantations, refusing to answer questions and making unintelligible sounds. ...

Capital punishment here is carried out by hanging, although an average of 
only seven criminals a year have actually been executed in recent years.

However support for the death sentence is rising in Japan.

A record 80 percent of Japanese people said they supported death penalty in a 
government survey of 5,000 people last November, up 5.5 percentage points from 1994.

Only 8.8 percent said the death penalty should be abolished, down 4.8 points 
from five years earlier, according to the poll, which had a response rate of 72 percent.

_______________________

 AUM killer gets death

  
("Mainichi Shimbun," July 29, 2000)  

"Atrocious and extremely cruel" Kiyohide Hayakawa will hang for the killings 
he carried out for doomsday cult AUM Shinrikyo after the Tokyo District Court 
sentenced him to death Friday. 
Among the seven charges of which the court found Hayakawa guilty was a 
conviction for the 1989 slaughter of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife 
Satoko and their 1-year-old baby Tatsuhiko in the family's Yokohama home. 

Presiding Judge Kaoru Kanayama said it was "extremely cruel" of Hayakawa to 
murder Tatsuhiko after his mother had used her final breath to plea for the 
infant's life. 

"[Hayakawa] faithfully obeyed [cult guru Shoko Asahara's] orders to the 
letter and played a leading and important role in the murder of the Sakamoto 
family," Kanayama said as he ordered Hayakawa to die. "Ignoring a final 
entreaty to spare the life of the son was an atrocious and extremely cruel 
crime."  ...

Kanayama was particularly harsh when it came to the Sakamoto murders. 

"Sakamoto was the effective leader of a group opposed to AUM and posed a 
major obstacle to the cult's future, so he was killed because [Asahara] 
decided that he had to be," Kanayama said, acknowledging that the killings 
were carried out under Asahara's orders. 

"[Hayakawa] was one of the leading figures in the killings, having scouted 
the Sakamoto home where the killings took place and strangling Satoko. 

"Even though Satoko used her final breath to beg that the child's life be 
spared, the plea was ignored in an act that goes completely against all human 
ethics," Kanayama said. 

Hayakawa was also convicted of the February 1989 strangling of 21-year-old 
Shuji Taguchi, who wanted to leave the cult.  ...

Hayakawa assembled a plant in Yamanashi Prefecture to produce lethal sarin 
gas after procuring equipment and raw materials for it between 1993 and 1994. 

Courts have already ordered the execution of Kazuaki Okazaki, 39, and Satoru 
Hashimoto, 33, in connection with the Sakamoto slayings. Okazaki has appealed 
against the sentence. 

Hayakawa, Okazaki and Hashimoto, as well as Tomomasa Nakagawa and Tomomitsu 
Niimi have been charged over the Sakamoto killings. Asahara is charged with 
masterminding the killings. Verdicts have yet to be handed to Nakagawa, Niimi 
and the guru
 

_______________________

AUM's Hayakawa sentenced to die for killing lawyer

(Kyodo News Service, July 28, 2000) 
  

The Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced former senior AUM Shinrikyo cult 
member Kiyohide Hayakawa to hang for his role in two separate murder cases 
and for building a plant to mass-produce nerve gas. 

In handing down his ruling, Presiding Judge Kaoru Kanayama said Hayakawa, 51, 
played a leading role on his own initiative in the November 1989 killings of 
lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, his wife, Satoko, 29, and their 1-year-old son 
Tatsuhiko at their home in Yokohama. ...

The judge criticized Hayakawa's defense that he was only following the orders 
of AUM founder Shoko Asahara, 45, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, saying 
he conspired with Asahara to kill the family. 

''It is unforgivable that he showed no hesitation to kill in the interest of 
the religious group. There is no room at all for mercy. We cannot see even a 
fragment of humanity in him,'' he said. ...

Hayakawa was also convicted for the February 1989 strangling of 21-year-old 
Shuji Taguchi, a cultist who wanted to leave AUM. 

Hayakawa assembled a sarin plant at an AUM facility in Yamanashi Prefecture, 
west of Tokyo, after procuring equipment and raw materials for it between 
1993 and 1994, the court ruled. 

Sarin gas was used in the 1994 attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and 
the 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway system. The two crimes claimed 19 lives 
and injured thousands. 

Public prosecutors sought the death sentence last December for Hayakawa, 
while his defense counsel had asked the court for a lighter sentence, saying 
he was merely obeying the orders of Asahara. ...

In connection with the Sakamoto killings, former senior AUM member Kazuaki 
Okazaki, 39, was sentenced to death in October 1998 and Satoru Hashimoto, 33, 
on Tuesday, both in line with prosecutors' demands. Okazaki has appealed his 
sentence. 

Hayakawa, Okazaki and Hashimoto, as well as Tomomasa Nakagawa, another former 
AUM member, and incumbent AUM member Tomomitsu Niimi were indicted over the 
Sakamoto killings, while Asahara has been indicted on charges of 
masterminding the murders. 

Hayakawa, who had been a prominent member of AUM since the cult's early days 
in 1986, is alleged to have visited Sakamoto in October 1989 with other 
senior AUM members to force him to retract his criticisms of the group. 
 

_______________________

Seventh Japan cult member gets death penalty

by Kazunori Takada (Reuters, July 28, 2000)
  

TOKYO, July 28 (Reuters) - A Japanese court sentenced a seventh former member 
of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult to death on Friday for murders linked to 
the group's killing of a man who wanted to leave the group and a lawyer 
investigating the cult. 

Kiyohide Hayakawa, 51, had been charged with the murder of a lawyer opposed 
to the cult along with his wife and year-old baby in 1989 and also for 
strangling a member who tried to quit. 

Tokyo District Court Judge Kaoru Kanayama said Hayakawa deserved the penalty 
because he played the main role in the extremely brutal killing of the family 
of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto. 

``It is unforgiveable that he showed no hesitation to kill in the interests 
of the religious group,'' Kyodo news agency quoted Kanayama as saying. 
``There is no room at all for mercy. We cannot see even a fragment of 
humanity in him.'' 

Hayakawa, known as the cult's ``construction minister'' had also been charged 
with building a factory to produce the sarin gas unleashed in an attack on 
the Tokyo subway in 1995 that killed 12 people and injured thousands. 

Hayakawa is the seventh Aum member to receive the death penalty for his 
involvement in the subway gas attack and the third ordered to hang for the 
murder of the Sakamoto family. 

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

Murdered lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, one of Aum's most vocal critics, had been 
investigating its activities. 

IGNORED MOTHER'S PLEAS 

Prosecutors said Hayakawa and other cult members crept into the home of 
Sakamoto as he, his wife and son slept, injected them with lethal doses of 
potassium chloride and strangled them. 

The defence argued Hayakawa was merely obeying the orders of cult leader 
Shoko Asahara. The judge said the accused had conspired with Asahara in the 
murder of the Sakamoto family. 

The judge noted it was particularly cruel of Hayakawa and other members 
involved in the murder to have ignored the mother's desperate plea for them 
not to kill her baby son, Kyodo said. 

Lawyers for Hayakawa said they had immediately appealed against the ruling, 
Kyodo said. 

The murders drew public attention to the cult even before the lethal subway 
gas attack in March 1995 that shocked a nation that had long prided itself on 
the safety of its citizens. 

Of the five cult members charged with the Tokyo subway attack, four have 
received the death penalty and one life imprisonment. 

Most of Aum's leaders are behind bars, but worries about the cult's 
activities prompted the government to place it under surveillance in February 
for three years. 

The cult has changed its name to Aleph -- the first letter of the Hebrew 
alphabet -- and insists it is now a benign religious group. In the past, it 
preached that the world was coming to an end and that the cult must arm 
itself to prepare for calamities. 

LEADER'S TRIAL TO DRAG ON 

On Tuesday, cult member Satoru Hashimoto, 33, was found guilty for his part 
in the murder of the Sakamoto family as well as for a 1994 sarin gas attack 
on a central Japanese city that killed seven people and injured scores. 

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

The two, Toru Toyoda, 32, and Kenichi Hirose, 36, are appealing against their 
sentences. 

Last month, another leading member of the cult, Yasuo Hayashi, 42 -- dubbed a 
``murder machine'' by the media for his crimes -- was sentenced to death 
because, the judge said, he released the largest amount of poisonous sarin 
gas in the subway attack. 

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

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

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

_______________________

Aum trio in gas attack file appeals

("Japan Times," July 27, 2000)

Three Aum Shinrikyo figures, two of whom were sentenced to death for their 
involvement in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, filed 
appeals Tuesday with the Tokyo High Court, sources close to the defendants 
said.

Toru Toyoda, 32, and Kenichi Hirose, 36, are appealing their death sentences, 
and Shigeo Sugimoto, 41, his life sentence for his involvement in the attack, 
all meted out by the Tokyo District Court on July 17.

At the time of their trial, attorneys representing Toyoda and Hirose had 
argued the death sentence is too severe.

They said it would be absurd if the two received the same sentence as that 
expected for the cult's founder, Shoko Asahara, the alleged mastermind of the 
attack, and argued Toyoda and Hirose had been controlled by the guru, whose 
real name is Chizuo Matsumoto.

Sugimoto's attorneys argued he only assisted in the gassing, and asked for 
his sentence to be commuted.

The district court, however, ruled Toyoda and Hirose were largely responsible 
for the attack, which it called cruel and indiscriminate.

The court said the attackers targeted five trains on the Tokyo subway system 
on March 20, 1995 during the morning rush hour. Toyoda boarded a Hibiya Line 
train and Hirose a Marunouchi Line train to release the sarin. Twelve people 
died in the attack and thousands were injured.

Sugimoto served as a driver for Yasuo Hayashi, 42, another member of the 
squad. Hayashi was sentenced to death last month and has appealed the 
sentence.

The three defendants were also on trial in connection with various other 
charges. Toyoda in May 1995 attempted to kill then Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima 
by mailing a parcel bomb to the metropolitan government office in Shinjuku 
Ward, according to the court.

The package exploded when Aoshima's secretary opened it, causing the 
secretary to lose all the fingers of his left hand.

From 1994 to 1995, Toyoda, Hirose and Asahara planned the illicit manufacture 
of 1,000 automatic rifles modeled on Russian-made AK-47s and succeeded in 
producing one at an Aum facility.

The court also ruled that Sugimoto conspired with Asahara and other Aum 
members to kill two Aum followers in 1994.
 

_______________________