Former Aum member pleads not guilty in trial appealing life sentence
A former member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult pleaded not guilty Monday in his trial appealing the life sentence he received for his role in the group's 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. Katsuya Takahashi, 58, was sentenced to life in ...
Metro workers mark 21st anniversary of sarin gas attack in Tokyo
Subway workers mark the 21st anniversary of the Aum Shinrikyo cult’s 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo metro, but kin of the deceased are still angry with the perpetrators.
U.N. Syria chemical weapons probe points to sarin exposure; rebel use doubted
A fact-finding mission of the global anti-chemical weapons watchdog has found indications that some people in Syria were exposed to deadly sarin gas, or a compound like it, according to a report the United Nations released on Monday. The findings come in the latest monthly ...
Twenty years on, people are still trying to fathom why so many people — including youths from elite backgrounds — were drawn to a doomsday cult that carried out a deadly sarin gas attack in downtown Tokyo.
Cult attraction: Aum Shinrikyo's power of persuasion
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of Aum Shinrikyo's deadly sarin attack in Tokyo, we talk to three people with intimate knowledge of the cult in a bid to find out how it was able to exert so much influence over its followers.
Matsumoto: Aum's sarin guinea pig
It's been 20 years since mass murderers came to Toshie Koibuchi's tiny street. It was the night of June 27, 1994. She was then 50, a housewife living with her husband and mother in a slightly upmarket residential area of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. Koibuchi had ...
The man accused of poisoning Matsumoto's civilians
It is difficult to fathom that a religious group might be behind a poison gas attack on hundreds of civilians. More likely, logic suggests, it would either be the result of a terrible accident or the work of a deranged individual. When confronted with ...
Former Aum member denies being bomber
Former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Naoko Kikuchi said Friday she had no idea that cult superiors had roped her into a plot to build and send a parcel bomb to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters in 1995. Kikuchi, 42, is pleading not guilty to charges of ...
Ex-Aum cultist pleads not guilty
Former Aum Shinrikyo cultist Naoko Kikuchi pleads not guilty to attempted murder for her role in the 1995 bombing of a Tokyo City Hall office.
Hirata feared arrest in police chief shooting: girlfriend
Ex-Aum fugitive Makoto Hirata hid for 17 years because he feared being blamed for the 1995 shooting of the national police chief if he surrendered, his girlfriend testifies.
Cultist says Hirata unaware of bomb
A condemned Aum Shinrikyo member testifies in the Tokyo District Court that fellow cultist Makoto Hirata had no foreknowledge of the 1995 bombing of a professor’s condominium.
How a yoga school became a doomsday cult
Aum Shinrikyo's criminal activities began in the late 1980s and culminated in the 1995 nerve-gas attacks on Tokyo's subway system. The group was founded in 1984 by Shoko Asahara, the babbling, half-blind guru whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto. Initially starting life as a yoga ...
