A court in Vladivostok, Russia, today sentenced three Russian members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult to prison for planning to bomb two Japanese cities in 2000.

The three and two others were convicted for planning to bomb Tokyo and Aomori shortly before the G-8 summit of industrialized nations on Okinawa Island in 2000 in an attempt to force Japanese authorities to release Aum Shinrikyo’s leader, Shoko Asahara.  Asahara had been jailed for trial on suspicions that he planned the group’s 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, which killed 12 people and injured 5,000 (see GSN, Dec. 21). 

The Russian group planned to take Asahara to Russia and hide him in an apartment near Vladivostok, prosecutors said.  Aum Shinrikyo leaders tried to prevent the Russian group from attempting the attack, witnesses said in court.  Russian authorities arrested the five Russians shortly before the G-8 summit and discovered assault rifles, homemade explosives, grenades and ammunition.  Russian authorities became suspicious of the five Russians after they moved from Moscow to Vladivostok in 2000 and bought weapons, the Associated Press reported.

The Russian court sentenced Dmitry Sigachev, the alleged leader of the group, to eight years in prison and confiscated his property.  The court sentenced two major accomplices to 6« years and 4« years in prison and confiscated their property.  The court gave a three-year suspended sentence and probation to another defendant and ordered another group member to mandatory treatment for schizophrenia.

Sigachev expressed regret for planning the bombings but said he remained loyal to Asahara (Anatoly Medetsky, Associated Press, Jan. 23). 

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