Japanese cult founder sentenced to death

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

Japanese cult founder sentenced to death

Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult founder Shoko Asahara was sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court on Friday, Feb. 27.

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Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult founder Shoko Asahara was sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court on Friday.

Asahara, 48, was convicted of all 13 charges over 27 deaths, including the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and another one in 1994 in a residential area in the Nagano Prefecture. The two attacks killed 19 people and left more than 5,000 injured.

The 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 the fresh outbreak of bird flu and the six-party talks over the nuclear problems on the Korean Peninsular.

Asahara was arrested May, 1995, two months after the Tokyo gas attack. In the trial dragging for almost eight years, 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.

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