Global Security Newswire

Japan on Friday pressed charges against the last person to be arrested over the lethal 1995 sarin nerve agent attack on the subway of the nation's capital, the Australian Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 20).

Authorities charged Katsuya Takahashi, 54, for violations that included killings resulting from the strike. The sarin gas release caused 13 deaths and thousands of illnesses.

Law enforcement officials last month detained Takahashi and 40-year-old Naoko Kikuchi, who until then had evaded punishment as members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that produced and dispersed the agent. Roughly 200 adherents of the sect have been found guilty of involvement in criminal acts including the chemical attack, according to earlier reporting.

Takahashi allegedly provided transport in support of the nerve agent dispersal (Australian Associated Press/Herald Sun, July 6).