---

Aum Shinrikyo

---

This is Religion News Blog's archive of news items tagged Aum Shinrikyo.

Articles listed here may also be related to other tags and keywords. As such, other news items in other categories and tags may be relevant to Aum Shinrikyo as well. Use the Google-powered search engine above to find more items.

Japanese security agency inspects AUM cult splinter group’s facilities

Ex-Aum Shinrikyo cultist faces fresh arrest warrant over bombing

Former AUM Shinrikyo cult member Makoto Hirata, 46, arrested for kidnapping, will be served a fresh arrest warrant as early as Jan. 31 for alleged involvement in a 1995 bombing in Tokyo.

Meanwhile another former Aum Shinikyo cult member was charged with harboring Hirata while knowing he was a fugitive.

Aum Shinrikyo to remain under surveillance for another 3 years

Aum Shinikyo cult member charged with kidnapping and confinement

A senior member of Aum Shinrikyo — the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways — has been charged in a kidnapping case, one of dozens of cult-related crimes in the 1990s.

Prosecutors charged Makoto Hirata with “unlawful capture” and confinement Friday in connection with the fatal abduction of a lawyer.

Ex-cultist arrested for harboring Aum Shinrikyo’s Hirata

A former AUM Shinrikyo follower who turned herself in to Tokyo police early Tuesday was arrested later in the day on suspicion of harboring Makoto Hirata — a former senior member of the cult, who was apprehended on New Year’s Day after surrendering to the police.

Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Asahara to be grilled over Hirata slaying role

Japanese investigators are set to question Aum Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara over the role Makoto Hirata, a former member of the cult who turned himself in to Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Dec. 31 after 17 years on the run, played in the abduction and death of a Tokyo notary office clerk in 1995, sources said Monday.

Imprisoned Ex-Aum Shinrikyo cult members questioned over Hirata’s role in 1995 case

Tokyo police have questioned a former AUM Shinrikyo cult member as part of their investigation into a case involving another former leading member who turned himself in to police over the weekend after almost 17 years on the run.

Other convicted Aum members are being questioned as well.

Police turned away surrendering Aum Shinrikyo cult fugitive

Japanese police have admitted they turned away one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives when he tried to surrender on New Year’s Eve after nearly 17 years on the run.

An officer thought the man was playing a practical joke.

Former Aum fugitive says cult leader should hang; cult victim says he should not

Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Makoto Hirata, who turned himself in to police late Saturday believes guru Shoko Asahara should hang for his crimes.

But one of the cult’s victims has called on the Japanese government to abandon the looming execution of the group’s leaders.

Aum Shinrikyo cult fugitive surrenders after 16 years on the run

Makoto Hirata, a former leading member of the AUM Shinrikyo cult who has been on the run for more than 16 years, turned himself in to police late Saturday.

He conspired with several other members in kidnapping a notary official in 1995 and causing his death.

Aum Shinrikyo victim hired by cult spinoff

Yoshiyuki Kono, a victim of a sarin gas attack by the AUM Shinrikyo cult in 1994, has accepted an offer by an AUM splinter group to serve as one of its inspectors, he said Friday.

Four others, including a Shinto priest and an academic, have also been recruited as inspectors.

Ex-prosecutor: ‘Aum made preparations to topple the government’

The Aum Supreme Truth cult could have toppled the government and taken power, even only for a short period, by committing mass murder in Tokyo with 70 tons of deadly sarin gas and 1,000 automatic rifles, a former Supreme Court justice said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Meanwhile, New Religious Movements scholars — paid for by Aum Shinrikyo itself — defended the cult.

Aum Shinrikyo may be gone in name but guru still has following

While Aum Shinrikyo’s criminal masterminds await the hangman’s noose on Japan’s death row, splinter groups remain active and are showing signs of loyalty to guru Shoko Asahara.

Renamed Aleph the cult reportedly still celebrates Asahara’s birthday with special events.

Aum Shinikyo trial end: Final appeal on Tokyo subway gas attack rejected

Japan’s top court on Monday rejected the final appeal against a death sentence meted out for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, leaving 13 members of the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult facing the gallows.

The supreme court threw out requests to spare the life of Seiichi Endo, the last of the cultists indicted over a series of attacks, including that on commuters which left 13 people dead — one of the nation’s worst mass-murders.

Japan’s top court upholds death sentence against Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult member

Japan’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal by senior AUM Shinrikyo cult member Tomomasa Nakagawa, who was sentenced to death by lower courts for involvement in a series of incidents including the group’s sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 and in Nagano Prefecture a year earlier.

---

Track This Topic

---

Interested in just the news about Aum Shinrikyo? Point your newsreader or web service to our Aum Shinrikyo news feed and receive only items about Aum Shinrikyo.

What are news feeds?

---

Related Books

---

• Books on Aum Shinrikyo