Japan hangs doomsday cult guru Shoko Asahara and six followers for 1995 sarin attack on Tokyo subway

Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara, who was convicted of numerous murders including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, was executed Friday along with six former senior members of the cult, the Justice Ministry said.

Asahara, 63, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, was sentenced to death more than a decade ago for masterminding the subway attack and other acts that resulted in the deaths of 29 people among a total of over 6,500 victims. He was among 13 people placed on death row in connection with the string of crimes perpetrated by the doomsday cult.

The six others executed on the same day were Yoshihiro Inoue, 48, Tomomitsu Niimi, 54, Tomomasa Nakagawa, 55, Kiyohide Hayakawa, 68, Masami Tsuchiya, 53, and Seiichi Endo, 58. Asahara was executed at a Tokyo detention centre, while the others were hanged there as well in Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.

“Their death penalties had been finalised after sufficient deliberations at courts,” Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said at a press conference in the afternoon, adding that she made careful considerations before ordering the executions on Tuesday.

Kamikawa, however, declined to comment on how the seven were selected among the death row inmates.