Daughter of Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult founder ‘sorry to be alive’

The fourth daughter of Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult founder Shoko Asahara expressed her sadness over the sarin gas attacks by cult members on the Tokyo subway system, prior to the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

In a recent interview with Kyodo News, the 25-year-old daughter said, "I feel sorry to be alive" when thinking of the victims. The sarin attacks killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000 people on March 20, 1995.

With 60-year-old Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, on death row after being convicted for masterminding the sarin attacks, his daughter said: "My father should absolutely be executed."

The daughter has severed links with the cult and now lives away from her family.

She said, "I felt half-sad and half-relieved" when Asahara was arrested at a cult facility in Yamanashi Prefecture, about two months after the sarin attacks.

However, the daughter said she earlier believed in her father's innocence as she was told that the cult was being subjected to religious persecution.