List of indictments against AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara

BBC Monitoring Newsfile/April 24, 2003

Tokyo, April 24:
AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara has been indicted for alleged involvement in the following 13 cases (all have accomplices, with names of charges in parenthesis).

- Tokyo subway gas attack (murder, attempted murder):

On 20 March 1995, AUM members released sari n nerve gas on Tokyo subway trains, killing 12 people and seriously injuring 14 others.

- Sarin nerve gas attack in Matsumoto (murder, attempted murder):

On 27 June 1994, AUM members sprayed sarin gas in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture , killing seven people and seriously injuring 4 others.

- Murder of lawyer Sakamoto, his family (murder):

On 4 November 1989, AUM members killed Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, a lawyer at odds with the cult group, his wife and their son at their home in Yokohama .

- Abduction and murder of notary clerk Kariya (abduction and confinement resulting in death, damage to corpse):

On 28 February 1995, AUM members abducted Kiyoshi Kariya, 68, the chief clerk at the Meguro Public Notary Office, on a Tokyo street to question him about the whereabouts of his sister who wanted to leave the group. Kariya was given general anesthesia, which led to his death from heart failure. His body was burned in a microwave heating device.

- Murder of AUM member Taguchi (murder):

In early February 1989, AUM members killed Shuji Taguchi, 21, who had wanted to leave the group, at its complex in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture.

- Murder of AUM member Ochida (murder, damage to corpse):

On 30 January 1994, AUM members killed Kotaro Ochida, 29, who had helped a female member escape from the group 's complex in Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture . His body was burned in a microwave heating device.

- Murder of AUM member Tomita (murder):

In early July 1994, AUM members killed Toshio Tomita, 27, whom the cult group suspected was a spy against the group, at its complex in Kamikuishiki.

- Murder of company employee Hamaguchi with VX gas (murder):

On 12 December 1994, AUM members killed Tadahito Hamaguchi, 28, whom the cult suspected was a spy, with highly toxic VX gas on an Osaka street.

- Attempted murder of parking lot owner Mizuno with VX gas (attempted murder):

On 2 December 1994, AUM members attempted to murder Noboru Mizuno, a parking lot owner, by spraying VX gas because of his assistance to the family of an AUM member who wanted to leave the cult.

- Attempted murder of victims ' group leader Nagaoka (attempted murder):

On 4 January 1995, AUM members attempted to kill Hiroyuki Nagaoka, head of the cult' s victims' association, by splashing VX gas onto his neck on a Tokyo street.

- Attempted murder of lawyer Takimoto (attempted murder):

On 9 May 1994, AUM members attempted to kill lawyer Taro Takimoto by injecting sari n nerve gas into the ventilator of his car at a parking area outside a district court while he was attending the trial of civil suit against the group.

- Construction of a sari n nerve gas production plant (murder preparation):

AUM members completed construction of a chemical plant to mass- produce sarin n erve gas by December 1994 at the Kamikuishiki complex to kill a large number of people.

- Manufacturing of guns (violation of law regulating gun production): AUM members produced gun parts and one prototype gun in 1994 and 1995 as part of a failed attempt to mass produce automatic rifles.