Japan on Friday executed the former leader of a doomsday cult and six other members of the group that carried out a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 13 people and shattering the country’s myth of public safety.
During morning rush hour on March 20, 1995, members of the cult he led, Aum Shinrikyo, punctured plastic bags with sarin nerve gas on three Tokyo subway lines, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000.
Victims suffered severe unberable pain and many were lying on the streets and subway platforms.This incident has shaken the safe and orderly society of Japan.
Sarin gas attack of 1994 by cult killed seven people. Matsumoto, a 63 years old scentenced to hang for his involvement in the attack.
Aum Shinrikyo was formed by Matsumoto in the 1980s. It practiced a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism before turning into a paranoid apocalyptic cult centered on its leader, who claimed to be a messiah and set up a commune at the foot of Mount Fuji where Matsumoto preached to his followers and Aum’s scientists produced nerve gas.
Executions are rare in Japan but surveys show a vast majority of people supports the death sentence.
