After a trial lasting eight years, the verdict will be handed down this week against Shoko Asahara, the self-styled guru who founded the Aum Supreme Truth cult behind the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve-gas attack. Prosecutors have demanded the death sentence for the 48-year-old accused of masterminding the plot to release Nazi-developed Sarin gas into the Tokyo metro. Twelve people were killed and more than 5,000 injured in the attack. The near-blind yoga-master, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has been charged with planning at least 13 crimes, which resulted in the deaths of a total of 27 people. He is also charged with ordering cult disciples to be killed and for another Sarin attack in central Japan in June 1994 that left seven people dead. Prosecutors have branded offenses on the charge sheet as “crimes of a devil who has lost his humanity completely,” and have labelled the guru “the most atrocious criminal in our nation’s history.” Full Story
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