Japan Executes Aum Shinrikyo Guru Chizuo Matsumoto

July 6, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Justice Ministry on Friday executed Chizuo Matsumoto, mastermind of a series of deadly crimes committed by the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system, according to informed sources.

As well as the 63-year-old Aum founder, who also went by the pseudonym of Shoko Asahara, six other former senior members of the cult were also executed, the sources said.

The executions marked a milestone, coming more than 23 years after the group shocked the world with the unprecedented and indiscriminate attack in the heart of Tokyo that left 13 people dead and over 5,800 others injured.

With other Aum crimes combined, a total of 29 people were killed and more than 6,000 people were injured.

The other former Aum members who were executed were Masami Tsuchiya, 53, Seiichi Endo, 58, Tomomitsu Niimi, 54, Yoshihiro Inoue, 48, Tomomasa Nakagawa, 55, and Kiyohide Hayakawa, 68.

Matsumoto and his six followers were the first of 13 convicted former members of the cult on death row to be hanged.

According to the final court ruling and other sources, Matsumoto, in collusion with the former senior Aum members, murdered a lawyer and his family in November 1989 and carried out a sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, in June 1994 in order to kill eight local residents, before releasing sarin in Tokyo subway trains in March 1995.

At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said, "The victims and their families have suffered fear, pain and sorrow beyond imagination."

"After careful consideration, I decided that the executions should be carried out," Kamikawa said.

The Justice Ministry transferred seven of the 13 death-row inmates from the Tokyo Detention House to similar facilities in March, following the last of the trials in January of the 192 Aum-related people who were indicted.

Matsumoto was arrested in the same year of the subway sarin attack.

He was found guilty of all 13 incidents for which he faced prosecution and was sentenced to death by Tokyo District Court in 2004.

In 2006, Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal made by Matsumoto on the grounds that his attorney failed to submit required documents in time. His death penalty became final in September that year when the Supreme Court endorsed the high court decision.

During district court hearings, Matsumoto pleaded not guilty, insisting that the crimes were committed by his followers.

He also began to make peculiar remarks and fall asleep during hearings. He ended up refusing to speak about his motives for the crimes.

His family filed a number of petitions for a retrial following his sentencing. A fourth petition was pending when he was executed.

In recent years, Matsumoto had become something of a recluse, having had no meeting with his family or lawyers since 2008. Jiji Press