Police Conduct Search Over Former AUM Member’s Mysterious Death

TOKYO, Sept. 25–Police searched several locations in Tokyo on Saturday in connection with the mysterious death earlier this month of a former female member of the AUM Shinrikyo cult.

A woman who lives in an apartment in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward called the police Sept. 11, saying the 36-year-old former member was found dead in the morning at the apartment after taking medicine overnight, investigators said.

The police searched the apartment as well as several other locations.

The former member is believed to belong to a cult called Keroyon, they said.

A 35-year-old man, another former AUM member who belongs to Keroyon, told the police she died during an exercise in which she was beaten with a bamboo sword, the investigators said.

AUM renamed itself Aleph in January 2000 in an effort to distance itself from its criminal image, but it remains under surveillance by the Public Security Intelligence Agency.

Senior AUM cadres have been convicted for a series of crimes, including the 1995 sarin attack in the Tokyo subway system.

Source

(Listed if other than Religion News Blog, or if not shown above)
Koyodo News Service, Japan
Sep. 25, 2004
home.kyodo.co.jp

Religion News Blog posted this on Saturday September 25, 2004.
Last updated if a date shows here:

   

More About This Subject

AFFILIATE LINKS

Our website includes affiliate links, which means we get a small commission -- at no additional cost to you -- for each qualifying purpose. For instance, as an Amazon Associate, Religion News Blog earns from qualifying purchases. That is one reason why we can provide this research service free of charge.

Speaking of which: One way in which you can support us — at no additional cost to you — is by shopping at Amazon.com.