Japanese doomsday cult doctor to hang
AP (29.10.2003)/ HRWF Int. (30.10.2003) C Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - A medical doctor who acted as a senior leader in the doomsday cult that carried out the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway will be hanged for his role in that crime and several other murders.
Tomomasa Nakagawa, 41, was sentenced to die Wednesday by the Tokyo District Court for helping to make the sarin nerve gas used in the subway attack, which killed 12 people, and another earlier attack that killed seven people.
He was also found guilty of taking part in earlier cult murders.
Nakagawa is the 10th member of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult to be given the death sentence.
Closing arguments were to be made Thursday in the trial of the cult's guru Shoko Asahara, who is also facing a possible death sentence for allegedly masterminding the subway gassing.
Asahara has claimed he is innocent, and his lawyers have argued that Aum disciples acted on their own.
The subway gassing was the worst case of urban terrorism in Japan's history, and deeply shocked the nation.
Raids of cult headquarters and confessions of leading members later revealed the cult had numerous plots to overthrow the government and operated labs to develop chemical and biological weapons.
At its height, the cult claimed 30,000 members, about a third of them in Russia. It still exists under the name Aleph, but its membership has dwindled to about 1,000 or so.
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Japan court to rule on doomsday cult guru in February
Reuters (04.07.2003)/ HRWF Int. (07.07.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Japanese court plans to hand down a verdict in the trial of the doomsday cult guru accused of masterminding a deadly gas attack on Tokyo subways next February -- nearly nine years after the event shocked the nation.
Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for Aum Shinri Kyo leader Shoko Asahara over the sarin nerve gas attack that killed 12 people and harmed more than 5,000 in 1995. The attack shattered the image of Japan as a crime-free society.
"We've told both sides that if the trial proceeds as scheduled, the ruling would be delivered on February 27," an official at the Tokyo District Court said on Friday.
Asahara, 48, faces 12 other charges, including the masterminding of a nerve gas attack in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto in July 1994 that killed seven people and hurt 144.
Prosecutors and Asahara's lawyers have said they would accept the date, which will be officially set after the final defense plea in court on October 30 and 31, he said.
Prosecutors demanded in April that Asahara be sentenced to death, saying: "It was indiscriminate terrorism and it is the most atrocious and nasty offence in the history of crimes."
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has pleaded not guilty.
In a rare move to speed up Japan's oft-criticized snail-paced court proceedings, prosecutors had dropped four counts against Asahara. The doomsday cult case has run for more than seven years already -- not unusual for high-profile trials in Japan.
Nine cult members have already been sentenced to death and have all launched appeals, which Asahara would also be entitled to.
The doomsday cult, which Asahara set up in 1987, at one point attracted a 15,000-member following in Japan. In the past, it preached that the world was coming to an end and that the cult must arm itself to prepare for calamities.
According to the Public Security Investigation Agency, there were still 1,650 Aum followers in Japan and some 300 believers in Russia as of last December.
The cult has changed its name to Aleph -- the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- and insists it is now a benign religious group.
Earlier this year, the public security agency secured a three-year extension to keep up strict surveillance of the cult, as it was still deemed to pose a threat to the public.
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Cult wins residency battle
Mainichi (26.06.2003)/HRWF Int. (01.07.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Japan's top court on Thursday disqualified local governments from refusing AUM Shinrikyo members' residency in their areas in a landmark ruling on the issue.
The Supreme Court's decision will force many local governments across Japan to review their stance in dealing with the controversial cult since they can no longer reject residency applications from AUM members.
Residential locations of AUM members has been an ongoing social issue, with the group asking courts to revoke local governments' decisions not to accept their residency applications in 16 areas throughout the country.
The top court specifically ordered Tokyo's Suginami-ku and Naka-ku, Nagoya, to accept applications from AUM members. "If (AUM members) move into the areas, the local governments concerned cannot refuse their residency notification," a judge presiding over the two cases said.
Officials in both Suginami-ku and Naka-ku had insisted that local governments were authorized to receive or reject residency applications because they have a duty to protect the health and safety of the local residents.
Hiroshi Yamada, ward chief of Suginami, was furious about the top court's decision.
"The court doesn't understand local residents' anxiety (about AUM members' moving in)," Yamada said. "I want the national government to think about fundamental measures to help solve the issue."
Hiroshi Araki, a top spokesman for the cult, kept a low profile.
"The residency problem is related to a series of past crimes (committed by AUM members), for which I now make an apology," said Araki. "We have sent letters to local governments where our members have filed lawsuits over their residency, asking them to reach an out-of-court settlement."
Several local governments such as Tokyo's Setagaya-ku and Adachi-ku have allowed AUM members to move in after courts ordered them to do so.
But Setagaya officials now subsidize local residents who keep an eye on AUM members' activities in their ward.
The issue is complicated because AUM members tabled their residency applications in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, even though they don't actually live there.
The Yashio Municipal Government previously decided to allow cult members to move in and to pay compensation for initially rejecting their applications. But now the city insists that it doesn't have to pay damages in a lawsuit it filed because some AUM members who had their applications rejected actually reside in other prefectures.
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Chino Shoho's quirks pose no threat: cultist
by Hiroshi Matsubara
The Japan Times (07.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (10.06.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On a quiet hill dotted with summer cottages in the village of Oizumi, Yamanashi Prefecture, with Mount Fuji soaring above the southern Alps, a pair of geodesic domes are going up.
In late April, the weekly newsmagazine Shukan Bunshun began a series of articles calling the cottages "satyams," a term the infamous Aum Shinrikyo coined for its residences. But these articles were about the cult Chino Shoho.
The articles appeared just as a mysterious group of people clad all in white began to attract nationwide media attention by wandering about central Japan in a caravan of white-painted vehicles, occasionally occupying mountain roads. The group called itself Pana Wave Laboratory and claimed to be Chino Shoho's "scientific arm."
Shukan Bunshun also speculated that the group was attempting to capture the popular stray seal Tama-chan from a river in Yokohama and bury it in their cottage compound in Oizumi.
The complex then came under constant monitoring by dozens of reporters seeking to uncover the connection between the landowner and Pana Wave -- and what they had to do with the seal, which in March evaded capture by a U.S.-based animal protection group that had received financial support from the landowner, Chino Shoho member Eitaro Moriya.
The owner of a clothing retail chain of 12 stores in Niigata Prefecture, the 66-year-old Moriya began building the cottages last October. He said they were intended as a place where he and his wife and sons could spend their summers.
He said he wanted the villas to serve as quiet second homes, but the media frenzy and local residents' fears over his connection with the group have stymied that plan.
As a senior follower of Chino Shoho, Moriya served as president of L.R. Publications in Tokyo, which has published books and magazines on messages by the cult's founder, Yuko Chino, 69.
"We can no longer go out to restaurants in this village, as people look at us as if we are potential criminals," Moriya said in an interview with The Japan Times. "What we believe and do may appear strange to the public, but why is it that a group that has not committed any crimes be subject to so much bashing?"
The roughly 40 members in the Pana Wave Laboratory caravan explained they were protecting Chino from electromagnetic waves and were moving from place to place to avoid them.
Moriya said the members dress in white from head to toe and drive white vehicles because this protects Chino from "persistent attacks by an unidentified enemy" armed with the "Scalar Wave," which they also call "extended electromagnetic waves."
Although Chino Shoho had no known connection with criminal activity, the cultists' radical attire and Chino's past doomsday messages meant it would not be long before the media associated it with Aum, whose members committed several heinous crimes, including the deadly 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system and a 1994 nerve gas attack.
'Aum in its early days'
At the beginning of May, Hidehiko Sato, chief of the National Police Agency, said Pana Wave's clothing and activities seem "fanatic" and resemble "Aum Shinrikyo in its early days."
The intense media coverage that dogged the group's every meandering move subsided once the Pana Wave caravan resettled at its headquarters in the city of Fukui in mid-May.
But Moriya said his business in Niigata suffered greatly after the local media featured photos and video footage of his shops there in their coverage of the cult.
"It has been more than a decade since our leader, Chino, began her exile, but (the caravan) previously had no trouble with the public or the media," Moriya said. "I came to realize it is the essence of the media business to raise public hysteria."
Moriya filed a suit against Shukan Bunshun late last month, demanding 10 million yen in damages.
To win local residents' approval to stay in Oizumi, Moriya had to sign a written oath with the village office last month, promising he will never invite the all-white caravan and will allow villagers to look in on the cottages and use them for meetings and small events if they so wish.
The caravan also signed a similar oath with a residents' group in Fukui, pledging not to host a large gathering at their headquarters and vowing to downsize the number of people living at the site from the current 50.
According to Moriya, Chino Shoho developed a distinctive identity under Yuko Chino, whom the cult regards as the "last messiah to succeed Buddha, Moses and Jesus."
Though it is not registered as a publicly authorized religious organization, the sect has been around in one form or another since 1977, when Chino published her first book of messages.
Chino's mother was a member of God Light Association, an occult group that expanded rapidly in the 1970s. After the group's founder died in 1976, some of its members gathered under Chino to form a new cult.
Its publications say Chino is able to communicate with good spirits in celestial spheres. Her messages are distributed to members in the form of essays, articles and poems through the monthly magazine L.R.
Members of the group do not consider Chino Shoho a religion, arguing that it lacks collective discipline, never asks its members for donations and never encourages them to propagate their beliefs to outsiders.
The group currently has about 1,000 members who pay a 6,000 yen yearly subscription fee for the monthly magazine. About 200 of them, who have time or money, volunteer to carry out what Chino Shoho considers good deeds, such as joining the Pana Wave caravan, Moriya said.
Others lead regular lives and just read Chino's message in the monthly magazine, he said.
UFOs, Satan, occult
In its publications, the group tries to explain scientifically Chino's spiritual teachings. These sometimes include science fiction touches, such as references to UFOs, mentions of Atlantis, the occult tastes, as seen in comments on Satan and doomsday, and references to the Bible.
After Chino reportedly fell ill in the early 1990s, the group established Pana Wave Laboratory in Fukui in 1994 to conduct "scientific research on the Scalar Wave." They believe electromagnetic waves are a key future energy source to replace fossil fuels and can be used as a weapon of mass-destruction, which, they claim, the United States and Russia have secretly developed as national projects.
Chino Shoho is also keen on conspiracy theories, claiming it has been attacked by communist agents and forces out to control the Scalar Wave.
It also runs an ultraconservative political organization and a mail-order firm for its members.
The strange combination of spiritualism, science fiction and political conservatism somehow coexist in the minds of the cultists, making it difficult for outsiders to share their views. The members said although their notions may appear strange, they are only exercising their freedom of thought and pose no threat to society.
Look out, Tama-chan
Their sphere of interest also includes the wayward seal.
"I guess we underestimated the popularity of Tama-chan," said Moriya, who admitted he provided financial support for the failed operation to capture the seal in March.
Moriya said the operation was launched by a former member of Chino Shoho who "took very seriously (Yuko Chino's) sympathy for the seal, which was living in polluted rivers."
It was also based on advice from foreign environmentalists, he said, claiming the group had planned to take the seal to an aquarium in northern Japan with which it had been in contact.
Chino Shoho, Pana Wave and Aum Shinrikyo all embrace apocalyptic theories. Chino has often warned in her writings that doomsday is approaching, though the message sounds much less consistent and specific than the preachings of Aum guru Shoko Asahara, who is now on trial for mass murder.
The essence is that doomsday began in the 1970s and since then, every individual has been requested to follow their conscience before it is too late, according to Moriya's 33-year-old son, also a Chino Shoho adherent.
Some members of the caravan also mentioned doomsday, reflecting their fear that the Scalar Wave, in the form of industrial pollutants, has been undermining the "Earth's core," the son said.
"Aum talked of doomsday to trigger public fears and boast its relevance, but have we ever attempted to appeal to the public for these purposes?" he asked.
Was police probe overkill?
On May 14, police launched a massive raid on Chino Shoho's 12 facilities across the country, mobilizing about 250 investigators ostensibly to probe allegations that three Pana Wave vehicles had been falsely registered.
The suspected offense, widely seen as an excuse for police to gather information on the group, is that the cult had one of its former member register the vehicles under his name although they were to be used by the group.
Moriya said he and other key members of Chino Shoho have since been repeatedly questioned by police.
"After Aum, it seems both the government and public feel they can do anything they want to anyone they perceive as strange," Moriya said. "But being unusual doesn't necessarily mean being wrong, and I always believe what Chino says is right."
The members claim Chino has long suffered from cancer as a result of constant electromagnetic wave attacks, and many of them believe she doesn't have long to live.
"If our leader Chino passes away, we no longer need to wear white clothes, or to go on a journey of exile in the caravan," Moriya's son said.
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Death penalty is upheld for Aum's sarin attack
The Tokyo High Court on Monday sentenced Masato Yokoyama, a former Aum Shinrikyo member, to death for murder and other charges tied to the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system.
The Japan Times (20.05.2003) / HRWF Int. (20.05.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - In handing Yokoyama the death sentence, the court upheld a previous lower court ruling.
Presiding Judge Kunio Harada denounced Yokoyama's actions as a "fanatic crime carried out upon orders (from Aum founder Shoko Asahara) based on a highly antisocial doctrine (of the cult)."
The sarin attack left 12 people dead and thousands injured.
Yokoyama, 39, is the second Aum Shinrikyo follower to receive the death sentence in a high court ruling. His defense team plans to appeal.
The court was told how Yokoyama, in conspiracy with Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, released sarin gas on a Tokyo subway train on March 20, 1995.
He was also found guilty of involvement in the cult's illegal production of firearms.
Yokoyama's defense counsel had urged the court not to give his client the death penalty, claiming he was operating under mind control imposed by Asahara and that there were no fatalities on the subway line on which he had released the gas.
The defense team also claimed that Yokoyama felt sincere remorse.
A former engineer, Yokoyama is one of the five Aum members who released the deadly gas on the subway trains.
Of the other four, three have been handed death sentences in district court rulings and are appealing to the high court.
Only one of the five -- Ikuo Hayashi -- received a life imprisonment term.
Last month, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Asahara, with the Tokyo District Court expected to hand down a ruling sometime early next year.
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Cult admits it may have mixed up its Armageddon dates
by Shane Green
The Sydney Morning Herald (17.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (19.05.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - The world did not end this week - a relief for most of us. But for Pana Wave, the strange and possibly dangerous white-clad Japanese cult that made the prediction, things could not have been worse.
It was all meant to be over on Thursday, when the unknown 10th planet approached the Earth, causing the globe to tip and triggering a massive earthquake.
But as the clock ticked over into Thursday in Japan, the only things that had approached were drenching spring rains and the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, in town for North Korean talks. Pana Wave had mentioned neither in its Armageddon predictions.
To be sure, at the start of the week, there had been an earthquake that shook awake Tokyoites, who are waiting for the next Big One - the devastating earthquake expected one day in the capital.
For Pana Wave devotees, there may have been a fleeting "we told you so" moment, albeit a few days ahead of schedule. But the only casualty was a boy who suffered a broken arm when he fell out of bed.
Perhaps sensing that Armageddon was not imminent after all, revisionist statements began emerging from the Pana Wave camp in central Japan. In the region's mountains, the cult is seeking a haven from electromagnetic waves it says are being directed at it by communists. The cultists believe their white garb helps repel the waves.
One cult member was reported as saying that the end of the world had been delayed for a week. Pana Wavians, however, have suffered irreversible damage to their credibility.
Armageddon aside, the reaction of the Japanese to Pana Wave continues to swing between amused and disturbed. There was the idea posted on the popular Two Channel chatroom that people should dress in black and surround the cultists with wave-emitting mobile phones and microwave ovens.
But there is also the darker side of the Pana Wave story. At the back of everyone's mind is the doomsday cult Aum that attacked Tokyo's subway system with sarin gas in 1995. So, on the eve of the predicted Armageddon, police searched the cult's vehicles and facilities. The justification was that a false name had been used to register three of the cult's vehicles. But authorities were also looking for more information about the cult.
Then there were the 10 bolts removed from a disaster prevention radio mast. A letter was sent to a national newspaper warning that unless the media stopped its coverage of Pana Wave, the mast would be toppled.
Finally, what of Tama-chan, the Arctic seal living in Tokyo's murky rivers that the cult believed it should rescue to save the world? As Thursday approached, it was spotted frolicking unperturbed - free of the fish hook that had recently lodged in its eye.
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AUM senior member apologizes at conclusion of trial
Mainichi (12.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (14.05.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - The trial of former AUM Shinrikyo senior member Tomomasa Nakagawa concluded Monday after he apologized for his involvement in a series of crimes committed by the cult including the Tokyo subway gassing that killed 12 people.
"I've been disqualified as a human being, as a doctor and as a religionist," Nakagawa, 40, told the Tokyo District Court. "Mr. (cult founder and former leader Shoko) Asahara murdered a large number of people. I devoted myself to supporting him. I apologize to those affected by the crimes."
The court is set to hand down a ruling on Nakagawa on Oct. 29. Prosecutors are demanding the death penalty for Nakagawa for his involvement in 11 crimes masterminded by Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto.
The crimes he was accused of having been involved in include a sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway trains in 1995 that killed 12 people and sickened thousands of others and the murder of anti-AUM lawyer Tsutumi Sakamoto, his wife and their infant son in 1989.
The defense counsel for Nakagawa asked for leniency during the last hearing Monday on the grounds that he did not play a leading role in the crimes and that he was nearly insane at the time. The lawyer added that Nakagawa had no choice but to carry out the crimes on the orders of Asahara.
Prosecutors countered that Nakagawa, as a high-ranking member of the cult, played an important role in these crimes
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Doomsday cult claims stray seal as savior of humanity
Mainichi (06.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (13.05.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - The convoy of white-garbed Panawave Laboratory cult members entered the Yamanashi Prefecture district of Hakushu late Tuesday, promising to vacate the area no later than 3 a.m. Wednesday, before their predicted end of the world on May 15.
The cult members entered the area from Nagano Prefecture, parking at an inspection site operated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Earlier, the members of the strange cult had departed from Kiyomi, Gifu Prefecture, where they occupied a section of road for over 60 hours Monday afternoon.
The all-white fleet had crossed the prefectural border and alighted on a national road in the Nagano Prefectural village of Kaida on Tuesday morning.
Unlike the roads they have occupied in previous months, the Kaida road was wide enough for them to avoid police accusations of breaking traffic rules.
A truck bearing license plates issued in Aomori Prefecture supplied the doomsday cult members with food and fuel.
During the stopover in Kaida, members of the cult allowed a Fuji Television Network reporter to conduct an interview with a woman believed to be Panawave's ailing leader, 69-year-old Yuko Chino.
The interviewer and his crew were ordered to wear white garments and to cover their equipment with matching-colored cloths.
Despite claiming she is a terminally ill cancer patient, a surprisingly animated and lively Chino argued that the most important issue at the moment was to save "Tama-chan," a stray bearded seal that now lives in a river in Saitama Prefecture.
"I will die in four or five days from now but that's nothing as important as Tama-chan. We've been feeding him every day since last summer," Chino told the Fuji reporter inside one of the cult's vans.
She also accused "radicals" for harassing her followers and preventing them from settling in one place. The convoy then started moving again and entered Yamanashi Prefecture shortly after 5:30 p.m.
Sources said Panawave members believe that "rescuing" Tama-chan would spare mankind from certain destruction on May 15 -- the day when a massive earthquake triggered by the tilting of the Earth's axis will devastated the planet, according to cultist publications.
Tensions are rising in Oizumi, where cult members have constructed dome-shaped structures, which they claim to be resistant to any kind of natural disaster, in preparations for doomsday.
The Panawave facility also has two makeshift swimming pools, apparently built to house the wandering seal.
A senior Panawave member who built the structures had told Oizumi officials that his fellow members would not come because there is "too much electromagnetic wave activity (that they believe to be harmful)." However, Chino's statement confirmed the cult's determination to find a shelter there.
Oizumi residents, however, are in no mood to welcome the cultists. "We are planning to do a sit-in (on roads leading to Oizumi) to stop them entering," said one of some 40 villagers who attended an emergency meeting Tuesday.
A resolution to call up every one of its 4,000 residents to block the cultists from entering Oizumi was adopted at the meeting. Members of a local volunteer fire company are watching six roads leading into the village.
Yamanashi police also set up a 210-man task force to deal with the problem. They plan to pounce on the cultists if, as they have done in the past, they occupy a section of road and cover the area with white cloths.
None of the possible charges, including violations of the Road Traffic Law and farmland laws, however, will have a decisive effect.
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Japan keeps eye on white-robed cult
by Elaine Lies
Reuters (05.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (06.05.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Japanese authorities are keeping a wary eye on around 50 members of a mysterious doomsday cult camped on a mountain road as the group pledged to move on to an unknown destination by evening.
The group, which calls itself "Pana Wave Laboratory" and believes the world will be devastated by natural disasters on May 15, is a chilling reminder for many Japanese that such cults remain active eight years after a deadly gas attack in Tokyo.
The cult members, clad entirely in white in what they say is protection from electromagnetic waves that made their 69-year-old leader gravely ill, have been camped on a narrow mountain road in Gifu prefecture, some 274 km (171 miles) west of Tokyo since early on Saturday morning.
"We have made a promise that we will move," a cult member was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying on Monday. "Our destination has not been decided."
The mysterious nomadic group ended a tense five-day standoff with police early on Friday when faced with the threat of arrest and has since moved camp twice to its current site, an unused road in the mountainous village of Kiyomi.
Japan's image of being relatively free from violent crime was shattered in 1995 when a gas attack on the Tokyo subway allegedly carried out by the Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect) killed 12 and made more than 5,000 ill.
The group, whose leader Shoko Asahara is still on trial, had preached that the world was coming to an end and that it needed to arm itself to prepare for calamities.
Japanese newspapers have reported that the white-robed cult -- apparently an offshoot of a religious group that emerged some 30 years ago -- believes there will be a reversal of the magnetic pole on May 15, causing tidal waves and earthquakes.
Garbled message
An official with the group, wearing a white face mask, read on Monday morning a garbled message he said was an "emergency statement" from the group's leader that contained the line: "People without the ears to hear will all face death."
Japanese media said a pamphlet issued last year by the religious cult that evolved into Pana Wave Laboratory said that if their leader died, they should "exterminate all humankind at once".
An official with the group also told reporters last week that a communist group was seeking to take the life of their leader by trying to kill her with a weapon using electromagnetic waves.
The communist group was also after key politicians, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, he said.
The atmosphere on Monday appeared relatively relaxed.
Television footage showed cult members wrapping trees in white cloth for further protection, while shadows cast on other sheets shrouding the 18 vans in the caravan showed one member being hit lightly on the head with a stick by another in what appeared to be some bizarre ritual.
A Kiyomi police spokesman said that, while 250 police had been dispatched to the site, their main job was traffic control.
"There are a lot of media people up here," he added. "Others have heard of this on the news and come up just to gawk."
Authorities on Japanese cults have said the group is unlikely to pose a danger to the general public, the greater danger being a mass suicide of group members.
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White cult on the move as doomsday approaches
Mainichi (02.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (05.05.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The expected arrival of the Panawave Laboratory doomsday cult in the normally tranquil Yamanashi Prefecture village of Oizumi has unsettled residents, as the motorcade of cultists continued to snake around central Japan on Friday.
The white-clad cult members, who were forced by police Thursday to leave Hachiman, Gifu Prefecture, where they had occupied a section of road for a week since April 25, made a short journey in their fleet of white vehicles and arrived at a neighboring village of Kiyomi in the predawn hours of Friday.
The dozens of cultists immediately covered crash barriers and trees alongside the road where they have parked their vehicles with white cloths, which they believe will protect them and their ailing guru from "harmful electromagnetic waves."
Local authorities have promptly demanded cult representative Keiichi Hasegawa to move out. The cult members are expected to move on from their latest stopover, which has put the residents of Oizumi, their likeliest final destination, on full alert.
In Oizumi, Panawave Laboratory members are constructing dome-shaped structures, which they claim to be resistant to any kind of natural disasters.
The cult's publications indicated that its members are convinced that the human race will be destroyed on May 15 this year because of a dramatic change in the angles of the Earth's axis.
In response, the Oizumi Municipal Government set up a task force Friday to deal with the cult.
Eighty members of the task force were drawn from local assembly members as well as representatives from Oizumi villagers. They will hold their first meeting on Saturday.
"All of us will work together to get rid of them if they do come to our village," Akira Kobayashi, a deputy mayor of Oizumi said.
Meanwhile, the discovery of a mysterious white van in the Tokyo suburb of Chofu prompted residents to alert police.
Eyewitnesses said the vehicle has been parked at a parking lot in the city's Jindaiji district for the past couple of weeks.
Although there was no one was inside the van, the interior was all painted prompting police to investigate whether the vehicle, which bears number plates issued in Okayama, is related to the Panawave cult.
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Aum Shinrikyo plagued by guru's whims
by Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa
The Japan Times (25.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (26.04.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The crimes perpetrated by the disciples of Shoko Asahara and those allegedly committed by the Aum Shinrikyo guru himself were the product of one man's whimsical impulses and not a concerted quest for power, according to journalist Shoko Egawa.
Egawa has covered the cult extensively since the days when few people were aware of its criminal activities.
Helping mold the prevalent image of the group, accused cultist Yoshihiro Inoue, in court testimony in 1997, claimed that Asahara's final objective was "to control the world by dispersing sarin in Japan and the United States, murdering the Japanese Emperor and winning over Russia with bribes."
For this purpose, the cult produced anthrax, sarin, VX and LSD, as well as built bombs, rifles and even a crude submersible, according to testimony by Inoue and other cultists.
According to Egawa, however, everything was done as a result of Asahara's impulsive nature.
"While a normal person would think of the consequences of his actions, Asahara just wanted things on impulse, very shortsightedly," she said.
As a result, Aum followers acting on Asahara's orders moved rashly, making their crimes so obvious it was hard to believe, Egawa said. Ironically, she added, this had the effect of delaying police investigations into the cult.
"The 1989 murder of anti-Aum lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family, for example, occurred just as Sakamoto was stepping up his criticism of Aum. One of the killers even dropped the cult's badge at the murder site," she said. "There was a belief that Aum could not have committed the crime because it was too obvious.
"Police may also have seen it that way, since they initially focused their investigations in a completely different direction."
While people often wonder why "elite" members of society were attracted to Asahara, including those who went to prestigious institutions like the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, Egawa said it makes sense when the cult's system of mind control is taken into account.
Deprived of food or sleep while being forced to undergo long hours of ascetic training, the cultists were drained of willpower. Some were placed in solitary confinement and forced to listen to recordings of Asahara's sermons at high volumes. There were also rituals in which cultists were given LSD, then made to meditate in a cell with a photo of the guru.
"The cultists eventually reached a state where, even if they felt their actions were wrong, they would automatically shake off such misgivings, thinking: 'This is training to rid me of doubt. The order cannot be wrong, because only Asahara sees the whole picture.' "
But even if the cultists still believed what they were doing was wrong, it was difficult for them to return to their earlier lives, Egawa said. They often had nowhere to go as all their assets had been given to the cult, and many had cut contact with friends and family.
Some stayed remained in the cult out of fear, she added, citing court testimony of cultist Takashi Tomita in 1997. Tomita explained how a friend, Toru Nakamura, died in 1994 from torture in the name of "training," but was initially reported as an "accident."
"According to Tomita, Nakamura, who had a girlfriend in the cult, asked Asahara to let her leave the cult with him, after he found out that she would be forced to sleep with Asahara as part of her training," said Egawa.
Asahara agreed on condition that Nakamura go through training involving bathing in hot water. Nakamura was forcibly bathed in 50 degree water and later of died of his burns.
"Such experiences made cultists fear that the same thing could happen to them," Egawa said. Police investigations show that apart from the 27 murders for which Asahara is accused, at least 40 cultists have either lost their lives or disappeared since the cult was established in the 1980s, she added.
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Doomsday guru's lawyer seeking acquittal
by Mari Yamaguchi
AP (22.04.2003) / HRWF Int. (05.05.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - His client slept through sessions of the trial. He mumbled and ranted in an odd mixture of Japanese and broken English, and refused to address the charges against him.
But attorney Osamu Watanabe, who has for the past seven years represented the doomsday cult guru charged with masterminding the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways that sickened thousands, said he feels satisfied he made the best case he could and is hoping for an acquittal.
"Despite all the restrictions and pressure from the court, we did everything we thought was necessary and possible," Watanabe said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. "And I'm proud that we were able to protect the defendant's rights."
The prosecution is scheduled to give its closing arguments and formally request the death penalty for cult guru Shoko Asahara at Tokyo District Court on Thursday.
The session will mark a major milestone in what has been an exceptionally long and complicated trial, even by Japan's slow court standards.
Along with the March 20, 1995, nerve gas attack, which left 12 dead and sickened thousands, Asahara is also charged with ordering a series of other killings, assaults and kidnappings.
Altogether, prosecutors say he was involved in 26 deaths.
In the gas attack, five top cultists carrying pouches of sarin nerve gas boarded separate cars on three subway lines that merged at a hub station underneath of Japan's government headquarters, and poked the bags with umbrellas, releasing the deadly gas.
Minutes later, thousands of passengers collapsed on platforms, gasping for air and coughing uncontrollably. Outside nearby stations more people, some unconscious, lie prone on sidewalks waiting for ambulances to arrive.
Investigators said the attack was an attempt to overturn the government, and was also aimed at diverting police attention from the group's other crimes.
Nine of Asahara's top lieutenants have already been sentenced to death for their roles in the subway attack and other cult-related crimes. If convicted, Asahara, who once claimed more than 10,000 followers worldwide, could also face death by hanging.
Watanabe's job has by any measure been a difficult one.
Asahara fired his first private counsel, whose eccentric personality and lack of experience raised doubts in the legal community, on the eve of what was to have been the start of his trial in October 1995.
The court then appointed a 12-member legal team for Asahara, headed by Watanabe, a well-known human rights advocate and outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
The subway attack and subsequent revelations of other brutal acts by members of Asahara's Aum Shinrikyo cult made him and his neo-Buddhist cult the focus of intense hatred and fear in Japan.
To make matters worse, Watanabe said, Asahara never offered his attorneys much help. He refused to discuss the case or even speak with them. When not maintaining a sullen silence, he seemed to revel in bizarre behavior in court, at times launching into incoherent tirades.
He kept silent during the three most recent sessions, however, when the court offered him the chance to make a statement.
"I really wanted him to say something because it was his last chance to say what was on his mind as a religious leader," Watanabe said. "I regret we couldn't establish communication with him."
The defense's case focused mainly on questioning whether Asahara had been directly linked to the gassing or other crimes by the mountain of depositions and confessions by members of Asahara's cult that was presented by the prosecution.
Watanabe also argued that the judge's handling of the case there are no jury trials in Japan had been swayed by public opinion. He said the prosecutors were allowed more leeway than they normally would be able to expect.
Still, he said he believes he made a strong case.
"As a defense lawyer, I can only say I believe he will be acquitted," Watanabe said.
One senior prosecutor, on the other hand, blamed the defense team for delaying justice by asking trivial questions and spending an inordinate amount of time on procedural matters.
"I must admit I believe the trial has been going on for too long," said Haruo Kasama, a deputy chief of the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office.
Relatives of those who died say they are also angry at the length of the trial, and by Asahara's failure to offer some sort of apology over the 13 charges against him.
"I attended every single session eagerly, thinking Asahara might say something," said Shizue Takahashi, whose husband was a subway employee. "I think Asahara deserves 13 counts of death."
Court officials note Thursday's session will by no means be the end.
The defense is set to make its final arguments on Oct. 30 and 31, and the verdict isn't likely until late March of next year. Several more years could be consumed by an appeal, if one is filed.
Watanabe said he will not take on that task.
"I've done enough already, and I'll be 70 in September," he said.
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Justice minister: "Don't let up on Aum Shinrikyo"
The Japan Times (12.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (15.04.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama on Friday underscored the need for continued surveillance of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that carried out the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and another deadly nerve gas attack the preceding year.
Moriyama's remarks came as she presented an annual report on Aum's activities to the Cabinet compiled by the ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency.
According to the report, Aum, which has changed its name to Aleph, had about 650 live-in followers and some 1,000 nonresident believers as of the end of December.
The cult maintains 28 facilities in 17 prefectures and about 120 dormitories, according to the report. It also has facilities in Russia, where there are about 300 followers, the agency said.
"There is still the danger that the group may engage in indiscriminate mass murder," Moriyama told the Cabinet. "Continued vigilance is therefore necessary."
For the latest report, the agency inspected 27 Aum facilities in 14 prefectures, including Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka, and made 42 reports on its investigations to 20 local governments.
Police last year searched 103 locations in 15 prefectures and arrested 20 Aum followers in connection with 16 cases. Some 5,600 items were confiscated as evidence.
The National Police Agency submitted an opinion statement to the security agency in November following a series of investigations into the cult.
Aum has been watched by the security agency in line with a law aimed at monitoring and cracking down on groups that have conducted indiscriminate mass murder during the past 10 years. Aum is the only group targeted at present.
The legislation stipulates that reports be submitted annually to the Diet through the Cabinet, and Friday's report is the fourth. The law, which took effect in December 1999, was extended for three years in February to allow for continued surveillance.
Several Aum members have been convicted in connection with the Tokyo subway sarin attack, which killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000, the June 1994 sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and for other heinous crimes. The trial of Aum founder Shoko Asahara is still going on.
On Thursday, the Tokyo District Court held the last questioning session for Asahara in the trial, which began in April 1996. Prosecutors are scheduled to close their case April 24, when they are expected to seek the death penalty.
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Asahara maintains his silence
by Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa
Japan Times (14.03.2003)/ HRWF Int. (18.03.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara has refused to speak throughout much of his seven-year trial on charges related to the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system, so it came as little surprise when he remained tight-lipped at Thursday's session at the Tokyo District Court.
Nevertheless, the court, prosecutors and his defense agreed to hold another two question sessions before the prosecution demands punishment.
Asahara's lawyers and presiding Judge Shoji Ogawa have encouraged him to speak of his role in the various cases, but the 48-year-old defendant has responded only with gestures, at times violently, as though trying to communicate in sign language.
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is being tried on 13 charges, including murder and attempted murder, related to the March 20, 1995, sarin attack in Tokyo.
During the evidence corroboration session of his hearing, Asahara sat with his eyes closed and did not react when the judge said: "Defendant, defendant . . . the afternoon session starts at 1:15 (p.m.). You will be questioned then. Do you understand?"
During questioning by his three lawyers, Asahara occasionally reacted fiercely, indicating that he was listening to what they were saying.
When a lawyer noted that Asahara once called himself a savior during a sermon, declaring himself Christ by his own interpretation of the Bible, Asahara threw his arms in the air and made gestures as if grabbing at something unseen.
Other tactics have included telling Asahara that it was his responsibility as the cult's leader to speak out, at least for those being tried as his accomplices; trying to stir memories of his youth with questions regarding his decision to turn to religion; and asking him about Armageddon, which Asahara spoke of when criticizing the U.S.
In one of his sermons, Asahara once called the U.S. "a tyrant that treated Japan as its colony."
Using this in an attempt to provoke a response, one lawyer explained the likely U.S.-led war on Iraq and asked, "Is this the situation you have called Armageddon?"
Asahara gestured, but maintained his silence.
The 251st hearing Thursday came after witness testimony sessions that lasted for five years through Feb. 28. If Asahara says nothing for two more sessions, prosecutors will likely present their closing statement and demand punishment by April 24.
Asahara has not spoken in court since November 1999, when he testified at the trial of three cult figures. He was talkative at his first trial session in April 1996, speaking for five minutes about his state of mind, but has since disrupted court sessions by babbling incoherently, often causing him to be removed from the courtroom.
In April 1997, in a barely intelligible mixture of English and Japanese, Asahara said, "I have already been found not guilty" in 16 out of the 17 cases for which he has been indicted.
Now, he reportedly will not speak with his lawyers, even outside the courtroom.
At a news conference after the day's session, victims of Aum's attacks and their families said it was regrettable that Asahara did not speak.
Shizue Takahashi, whose husband died in the subway attack, asked, "Does this man realize whose trial it is?" It's a waste of time to hold any more sessions."
However, Hiroyuki Nagaoka, who represents a group of people whose family members have become cult followers and was himself attacked by cultists using deadly VX gas, said: "Even now, youths are being lured into the cult by smooth-talking cult executives. To save such people, I strongly ask Asahara to say just one thing in the end -- that he was wrong."
Asahara is indicted on 13 counts, including seven of murder. The 1995 sarin attack killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000.
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Asahara trial's closing arguments may come in April
The Japan Times (27.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (27.02.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Prosecutors may present their closing arguments in late April in the trial of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, who stands accused of murder and other heinous crimes, including masterminding two deadly sarin attacks, legal sources said Wednesday.
The Tokyo District Court has informed the prosecution and defense teams of its decision to question the defendant in at least three of the seven trial sessions scheduled for March and April, including the 251st one, slated for March 13, the sources said.
If Asahara, 47, refuses to speak or answer questions, as he has done up to now, the prosecution will probably deliver its closing statement in late April, bringing the trial that began in April 1996 to its final stage, the sources said.
Asahara stands indicted on 13 counts, including seven for murder. The 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000. The nerve gas attack the previous year in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killed seven and injured hundreds.
In April 1997, Asahara pleaded not guilty to all the charges except for one of attempted murder. He has refused to consult with his court-appointed lawyers throughout the almost seven years of his trial so far.
The cult guru has also refused to respond to questions from the presiding judge in court.
His defense team has asked the court to approve questioning of the defendant in at least three sessions and the court and prosecutors agreed with the request, according to the sources.
The defense examination of witnesses, which began last June, is scheduled to end this month. The presentation of evidence for the trial is expected to end after victims and relatives of the dead make their statements, in addition to the questioning of Asahara.
Aum must prove itself "harmless"
The Japan Times (08.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (11.02.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Three years' surveillance of the Aum Shinrikyo cult (now called Aleph) by the Public Security Investigation Agency, in accordance with the Antisubversive Activities Law, expired at the end of January. But the Public Security Examination Commission, or PSEC, has decided that surveillance should continue for another three years because the danger of Aum perpetrating an act of indiscriminate mass murder cannot be ruled out yet.
Aum appears ready to file an administrative suit to overturn the decision, arguing that continued surveillance violates freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution. The commission states that the decision on extended surveillance is not unconstitutional because it does no more than place necessary and rational restrictions on basic human rights in order to protect public welfare.
One reason cited by the PSEC for concluding that a danger still exists is that Aum still urges followers to show absolute devotion to the former leader of the cult, Chizuo Matsumoto (known in the cult as Shoko Asahara), who is now on trial in Tokyo District Court. Another reason is that Mr. Fumihiro Joyu and other senior members of the cult at the time of the 1994 sarin gas attacks in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and on the Tokyo subway in 1995, still hold top positions in the group, and that Aum sermons are said to justify past criminal conduct. Furthermore, the commission said Matsumoto still exerts what can be called absolute influence on cult members and that changes in Aum's doctrine have not become a reality.
According to the National Police Agency, Aum has branches at 26 sites in 15 prefectures while maintaining residential facilities at 150 locations. There are about 650 persons who have retired into Aum and about 1,000 lay believers. The cult continues, as before, to procure funds from followers and to actively engage in missionary work. The PSEC, therefore, has concluded that there is still a danger of the cult carrying out indiscriminate killings.
The problem is whether the commission was correct in agreeing to continue surveillance on the grounds that an "abstract danger" exists. In its decision three years ago, the PSEC's interpretation was that "for the recognition of a danger, a specific and realistic fact is not necessary; generally speaking, an abstract fact will suffice." The latest decision is based on this reasoning.
However, in the administrative suit that Aum filed over the previous decision on surveillance, the Tokyo District Court in 2001 ruled that, for the application of surveillance, "it is necessary to prove that there exists a specific danger that an act of indiscriminate mass murder may be committed." The court urged a strict application of the Antisubversive Activities Law, stating that "if there is no such danger, then restrictions on the freedom of religion cannot be permitted."
It ruled that surveillance was only constitutional if applied in a limited manner and criticized the PSEC's previous decision as a mistaken interpretation of the law. However, the court did approve the surveillance in recognition of Matsumoto's continued influence and other relevant factors. In the commission's latest decision, some members argued that three years are too long as a period of punishment. As the Tokyo District Court indicated, the continuation of strict regulations could violate the constitutional guarantees of the freedom of religion and freedom of association.
If Aum files an administrative suit again this time, the focus is likely to be on whether Matsumoto still has enough influence to order and cause an act of indiscriminate mass murder. More than seven years have passed since Matsumoto was arrested. Mr. Joyu claims that Matsumoto no longer has absolute influence and that the need for surveillance has ended, since Aum has taken steps to prevent the repetition of criminal acts.
However, local governments and residents in places where Aum has facilities are concerned that if Matsumoto gave an order, there would be no way of knowing what cult members might do. Some people even call for more forceful restrictions on the cult's activities.
Instead of simply repeating the hollow words that the cult is no longer dangerous, Aum must prove -- in a visible manner -- that it is harmless. More than anything else, it must carry out fundamental reform of its structure so that the public no longer feels any danger. Unless it is prepared to go that far, Aum will not be accepted by society.
Convicted Aum figure's appeal nixed
The Japan Times (07.02.2003) / HRWF Int. (11.02.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Tokyo High Court on Thursday turned down an appeal by a former senior Aum Shinrikyo figure who was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the murder of one member and the cremation of another.
Toshiyasu Ouchi, the 50-year-old former head of the cult's Russian branch, had appealed against the November 2000 Tokyo District Court conviction on the charge of conspiring with Aum founder Shoko Asahara and other cult members in the murder of a follower in 1989. Ouchi was also found guilty of illegally cremating the corpse of another follower who died on the cult's property in 1993.
Ouchi's defense had argued that he could not have "conspired" with Asahara, whose orders had absolute power within the cult. The lawyers also said that the stress generated by Asahara's orders drove Ouchi insane.
The lawyers had claimed that Ouchi has no memory of standing guard as the murder took place. Even if Ouchi could remember, the lawyers said, he could not be considered an accomplice because his role did not directly contribute to the crime.
But presiding Judge Masaru Suda dismissed this argument, saying Ouchi consciously participated and fully accepted Asahara's view that the murder was necessary to protect the cult.
In February 1989, senior Aum members, including Ouchi, decided to kill 21-year-old follower Shuji Taguchi because he wanted to leave the cult.
Acting under Asahara's orders, senior cult members strangled Taguchi at the cult's facility in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, while Ouchi stood guard.
In June 1993, Ouchi was involved in the cremation of the body of 25-year-old follower Naoki Ochi, who allegedly died during training at the cult facility.
Cultists compensated
The Daily Yomiuri (29.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (04.02.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Mito District Court On Wednesday ordered the Mito city government to pay a total of 600,000 yen to two members of the Aum Supreme Truth cult for rejecting their applications to register as residents in December 2001.
The 36-year-old and 54-year-old male cultists had filed a lawsuit demanding 2 million yen in compensation.
Handing down the ruling, presiding Judge Hidemi Senba said the two were emotionally distressed because their application to register as residents was illegally rejected despite their living in the city.
According to the ruling, the two had difficulty leading their lives as they were not able to register their personal seals or renew their driver's licenses because of the rejection by the city government.
Death demanded for Aum "doctor"
by Yomiuri Shimbun
The Daily Yomiuri (29.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (04.02.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the death penalty for a former senior member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult for his alleged involvement in a series of murders committed by the doomsday cult, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Tomomasa Nakagawa, 40, the "doctor" of Aum founder Chizuo Matsumoto, 47, also known as Shoko Asahara, is being tried at the Tokyo District Court on 11 charges, including murder and attempted murder.
Nakagawa has pleaded not guilty, saying he did not know what purpose the sarin nerve gas would be used for in the subway attack.
Prosecutors said Nakagawa played a central role in the attack as a close aide to Matsumoto and was involved in most of the criminal acts committed by the cult.
Prosecutors detailed how Nakagawa allegedly developed the deadly gas with another former senior Aum member, Seiichi Endo, 42, who has appealed his conviction on charges of murder and attempted murder in five cases to a higher court after being sentenced to death in October.
Regarding the June 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, prosecutors said it was clear that Nakagawa was well aware of how lethal the gas was, although he claimed sarin was not necessarily fatal.
Prosecutors said Nakagawa was trying to mislead the court by skillfully repeating lies.
Surveillance of Aum to continue on grounds it still poses threat to public
The Japan Times (19.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (20.01.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Public Security Examination Commission has decided to keep the Aum Shinrikyo cult under surveillance for another three years, sources said.
The Public Security Investigation Agency has asked the commission to extend the surveillance period beyond Jan. 31, when the current surveillance authority lapses. It believes that the cult, which launched a fatal gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, is still a threat to the public and is capable of indiscriminate mass murder.
The commission is headed by Kozo Fujita, a former Hiroshima High Court president. It is discussing in detail its decision and is expected to make a formal decision as early as Monday. The decision will be announced in the government gazette at the end of January.
The cult, renamed Aleph in January 2000, is considered likely to file a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court demanding a revocation of the extension if it is made official.
The Public Security Investigation Agency asked the security commission on Dec. 2 for permission to extend the surveillance.
The agency argued that Aum founder Chizuo Matsumoto, accused of masterminding the sarin gas attack on the subway system and currently jailed while on trial, still wields power over the cult and can order indiscriminate mass killings.
Aleph is currently headed by Fumihiro Joyu, a former senior Aum official.
The agency also argued that high-ranking cultists, including Joyu, who were senior members at the time of the subway attack, are still active. It added that Aum advocated a secret doctrine ordering followers to kill.
Acting under the current surveillance authority, the agency has kept 88 Aum facilities in 16 prefectures under watch since February 2000. It has submitted some 400 pieces of evidence to support its belief that the sect remains a threat.
Aleph filed a petition on Dec. 24 with the security commission asking it to reject the surveillance extension. On Jan. 8, Joyu met with members of the security commission at the Justice Ministry in a closed hearing and argued that his group no longer poses the threat of mass killings.
In making its case, the group said it has taken steps to prevent a repeat of such an attack and the surveillance has outlived its usefulness.
Matsumoto, 47, is commonly known as Shoko Asahara. He has been on trial since April 1996 for his role in the March 20, 1995, subway attack that left 12 people dead and thousands injured, as well as for other crimes attributed to Aum. He denies the charges.
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