5 doomsday group members fined, released in death of member

FUKUI, Japan, Dec. 27 (Kyodo) — Five members of the Pana Wave Laboratory cult-like doomsday group were released Friday after paying 200,000 yen each in fines that a summary court ordered in connection with their assault of a member, who later died, in August in the city of Fukui, Fukui Prefecture.

The Fukui Summary Court’s ruling came after public prosecutors filed a summary indictment Friday against the five for assaulting Satoshi Chigusa, an assistant professor at Fukuoka University of Education.

The prosecutors decided not to indict the five on charges of assault causing injury as they could not prove that Chigusa, 40, had received his injuries from the beating.

According to indictment, the five beat him with rolled-up cardboard and leather belts intermittently for about three and a half hours Aug. 7.

Police had arrested the five for assaulting Chigusa, but believe he died of a combination of posttraumatic shock and heatstroke.

Pana Wave drew media attention earlier this year when some of its members, clad in white and traveling in a caravan of white vehicles, stopped along roads in central Japan and disrupted traffic, saying the white coloring was intended to shield them from harmful electromagnetic waves.

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