On Monday, Tokyo prosecutors added addition indictments to Naoko Kikuchi, one of the two final Aum Shinrikyo cult members who were arrested a few months ago after 17 years on the run. 40 year old Kikuchi is now believed to have participated in an attempted parcel bomb attack on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in May of 1995. Investigators have found the attack was meant to kill then Tokyo Governor Yukio Aoshima, however the attack only resulted in the severe injury to one office worker.
Naoko Kikuchi has been charged with aiding an abetting an attempted murder, along with participation in the creation, and mailing of the explosives. One Aum Shinrikyo member already on death row, 42 year old Yoshihiro Inoue, has already been convicted for his involvement in the bombing, and Katsuya Takahashi, the final religious cult member to be caught after Kikuchi, was also charged with participation in the government attack in early July, shortly after his arrest.
Takahashi and Kikuchi, along with the entire Aum Shinrikyo cult, are more known for their attack on the Tokyo subway system through the use of toxic sarin nerve gas, which killed 13 people and injured 6,000 more. That attack took place in March of 1995, two month before the postal bomb attack. Kikuchi was also suspected of attacking a man on the street in December of 1994 with VX nerve gas, which eventually killed him. However Tokyo prosecutors will not indict on those charges due to a lack of evidence.
