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Tokyo Court Refuses to Halt Appeal Trial for Convicted Cult Head Despite Reported Mental Deterioration
The Tokyo High Court refused to suspend an appeal trial for the former head of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, Shoko Asahara, whose lawyers said he was mentally unfit to stand trial, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, July 28). The court told Shoko Asahara’s lawyers yesterday that their request to suspend the trial had been rejected after chief judge Masaru Suda met with Asahara in prison and determined he was mentally fit, according to a court spokesman. Asahara was sentenced to death in February, in part, for leading the cult responsible for conducting a 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12. Asahara’s daughters said their father has been incoherent during meetings since mid-August, AFP reported. “I could not understand what was going on as (father) was incoherently laughing, turning right and left, looking up and down,” one daughter said, according to a Japanese tabloid (Agence France-Presse/Channel News Asia, Dec. 21).
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