Aum founder found guilty of most charges

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 27, 2004

Aum founder found guilty of most charges

The founder of Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult has been found guilty of seven of the 13 charges beforethe final ruling late Friday.

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The founder of Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult has been found guilty of seven of the 13 charges beforethe final ruling late Friday.

Shoko Asahara, 48, is very likely to face a death sentence in his doomsday after a eight-year-old trial.

The convicted crimes include the sarin gas attack at Tokyo subway in March, 1995, which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000. A total of 27 people were killed in the 13 charges.

The last trial started 10:00 a.m.(0100 GMT) on the Tokyo District Court with more than 4,600 people lining outside for the 38 seats in the court.

All Tokyo broadcasters covered the story live, disregarding thefresh outbreak of bird flu and the six-party talks over the nuclear problems on the Korean Peninsular.

Asahara was arrested two months after the Tokyo gas attack. He kept silent in most of the previous hearings and denied all but one charge. The prosecutors demanded death penalty in April, 2003.

More than 180 people were indicted for Aum-related crimes and 11 of them have been sentenced to death.

Source: Xinhua

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