The Tokyo District Court on Friday rejected a claim from Aum Shinrikyo that a 1999 law that allows state surveillance of the group is unconstitutional.
Aum, which renamed itself Aleph in January 2000, has been under surveillance by the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency since February 2000, based on a set of laws enacted in December 1999 that allow authorities to monitor "groups that have committed indiscriminate mass murder within the past 10 years."
Founder Shoko Asahara and several other cult members have been convicted of a number of serious crimes, including a March 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system, which killed 12 people and injured thousands.