Related
Translate
Previous entry: Row greets Canadian ruling on sharia law dispute
Next entry: Minnesota archbishop bars Legionaries from his archdiocese
Get RNB via RSS
 |
RNB's RSS feed What is this? |
Get RNB via Email
 |
 Subscribe by Email What is this? |
Follow: Twitter
Most Popular
This Week:
- Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque
- Gaddafi preaches Islam to Rome beauties
- Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’
- Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure
- Australian senator tells Parliament of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology
- When a child dies, faith is no defense
- Techie Holy water and geeky bishops
- Muslim terrorists smuggle fatwas promoting Jihad out of secure UK prisons
- Israel Charges Extremist With Attempted Murder Of Messianic Family
- Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state
Tokyo court rules doomsday cult guru mentally fit to stand trial
More articles on this topic: Aum ShinrikyoTOKYO : A Tokyo court has refused to suspend the trial of the founder of a cult that spread deadly nerve gas throughout the subway system in 1995 despite reports that his behaviour was increasingly erratic.
The Tokyo High Court said Shoko Asahara was mentally fit and told his lawyers Monday that it was rejecting their request to halt the trial, the spokesman said.
The bearded 49-year-old former head of the Aum Supreme Truth cult was sentenced to death in February and is facing an appeal trial, which his lawyers wanted suspended so he could undergo psychological tests.
The court spokesman said the chief judge in the appeal trial, Masaru Suda, had met with Asahara in prison and confirmed he was mentally fit.
The decision drew a tearful plea from Asahara’s daughters who said they could not have any substantive conversations with their father in about 20 meetings since mid-August.
“I could not understand what was going on as (Father) was incoherently laughing, turning right and left, looking up and down,” the tabloid Nikkan Sports quoted the second daughter as saying.
Asahara has two sons and four daughters.
Jiji Press news agency had earlier reported that Asahara’s health had deteriorated to the point he wears diapers in prison.
Members of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, which was founded in 1984, spread Nazi-invented sarin gas on the Tokyo subway in March 1995, killing 12 people and injuring thousands.
Cult members had testified that the offences were committed under orders of Asahara, who reportedly wanted to thwart a police raid on the sect. His trial opened in April 1996.
The cult, renamed as Aleph, has acknowledged responsibility for the crimes and apologized.
What You Can Do From Here
|
Read More Articles On These Topics
Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article
Subscribe
Read Another Article
Previous entry: Row greets Canadian ruling on sharia law dispute Next entry: Minnesota archbishop bars Legionaries from his archdiocese
RNB Homepage with latest headlinesFind Related Information
Find Related Books
|
Share This Article
To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:
