Japan executed on Friday, July 6 the former leader of a doomsday cult and six other members of the group that carried out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 13 people and shattering the country’s myth of public safety.
The Aum Shinrikyo, or Aum Supreme Truth cult, which mixed Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings, staged a series of crimes including simultaneous sarin gas attacks on subway trains during rush hour in March 1995. Sarin, a nerve gas, was originally developed by the Nazis. The images of bodies sprawled across platforms stunned Japan, and triggered public safety steps such as the removal of non-transparent rubbish bins that remain in force to this day. As well as killing the 13, the ttack injured at least 5,800 people.
Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa read out the names of the seven at a news conference and said what they had done was „extremely atrocious“.
„These crimes … plunged people not only in Japan but in other countries as well into deadly fear and shook society to its core,“ Yoko Kamikawa said.
Chizuo Matsumoto, the cult’s leader who went by the name Shoko Asahara, was the first to be hanged, media said as it broke into regular programming to report the news.
Family members of attack victims expressed relief. „I think it’s right that he was executed,“ said Shizue Takahashi, whose husband was a subway worker who died after removing a package of sarin from a train.
Executions are rare in Japan but surveys show most people support the death sentence.
Asahara, 63, a pudgy, partially blind yoga instructor, was sentenced to hang in 2004 on 13 charges, including the subway gas attacks and other crimes that killed at least a dozen people. He pleaded not guilty and never testified, but muttered and made incoherent remarks in court during the eight years of his trial. The sentence was upheldby the Supreme Court in 2006.
In all, 13 cult members were sentenced to death during more than 20 years of trials, which came to an end in January 2018.
Asahara, who founded Aum in 1987, said that the United States would attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland. He also said he had traveled forward in time to 2006 and talked to people then about what World War Three had been like.
At its peak, the cult had at least 10,000 members in Japan and overseas, including graduates of some of Japan’s top universities.
Some Japanese are worried now about revenge. „I cheered when I heard he’d been killed, but worry that his former followers might deify him and do something. We have to be on guard for a while,“ said Twitter user Chie.¨
ELAINE LIES KIYOSHI TAKENAKA
Text pochází z agentury Reuters
SLOVÍČKA
doomsday soudný den
carry out vykonat, provést
shatter otřást, rozbít
stage zorganizovat, připravit
rush hour dopravní špička
sprawl rozprostřít
stun šokovat, ohromit
trigger spustit, vyvolat
non-transparentneprůhledný
atrocious krutý, brutální
plunge vrhnout, uvrhnout
corejádro, podstata
hang pověsit, oběsit
break into pustit se do čeho
relief úleva
death sentence rozsudek smrti
pudgy zavalitý
blind slepý
charge obvinění, obžaloba
plead guilty přiznat vinu
testify vypovídat, svědčit
mutter mumlat, mručet
incoherent nesouvislý
uphold potvrdit
wasteland pustina
deify zbožňovat, uctívat
be on guard být na pozoru
Zdroj LN