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Death penalty for Japan cult guru
Shoko Asahara, the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult which gassed the Tokyo subway in 1995, has been sentenced to death for ordering the attack. The sarin strike killed 12 people and injured thousands more. It shocked Japan and shed light on the fanatical Aum Shinrikyo group, which was obsessed with chemical and biological weapons. Eleven other Aum members have received death sentences, though none have been executed pending appeals.
I don’t believe very many people win these apeals in Japan.
I think the conviction rate is something like 90% over there. Either way, it's long past time that Asahara was toes up.

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, stood passively and said nothing as he was found guilty of all 13 charges of murder and attempted murder. It is still not clear exactly why Asahara ordered the Tokyo attack. The group mixed Buddhist, Hindu and Christian tenets and believed some kind of Armageddon was imminent. The group had also begun to feel threatened by the police at the time of the subway strike and some analysts believe it was in part designed to delay and confuse the authorities. Aum is still operating, albeit under the new name of Aleph and with a supposedly benign new remit. However, the Japanese police still monitor it closely and believe it is still dangerous.
Should be shut down totally, Japanese may be allowing it to stay open in order to monitor the membership.
The other problem is that if they get shut down they go underground, which is not something you amongst folks who know how to make chemical weapons. Right now they claim not to be dangerous, so the coppers tolerate their whackiness but the moment that they start getting nutty again, like the Russian batch in 2001 that wanted to spring their Grand Guru loose, you shut 'em down.

Posted by: Steve 2004-02-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=27024