Cult Leader’s Remains In Legal Limbo
It’s been a year since Shoko Asahara (real name Chizuo Matsumoto), leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult was executed by hanging in a Tokyo prison. The cult’s core teachings surround the idea of preparing to re-inhabit the earth after a nuclear war between the United States and Japan. To bring this apocalyptic vision come true, Asahara ordered members of his cult to carry out a chemical attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 with the belief that this would kick start the apocalypse. Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004 for his part in orchestrating the gas attack not just in Tokyo but in the city of Matsumoto, as well as ordering the murder of Tsutsumi Sakamoto in 1989. Asahara was hung on July 6, 2018, along with six other cult members one of whom was involved with the murder of Sakamoto and his family. One of the perpetrators of the Sakamoto killing, Hideo Murai, never saw his day
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