"Coming at cha!"
Posted on 01/30/2004 12:50:46 PM PST by atomic conspiracy
A Japanese chemist who oversaw the development of nerve gas used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway has been sentenced to death. Masami Tsuchiya, 39, became the 11th member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the attack to be sentenced to death.
Prosecutors said he was the second most important person behind the attack, after the cult's leader Shoko Asahara.
The verdict on Mr Asahara's seven-year trial is expected next month.
Tsuchiya was enrolled on a doctorate programme in chemistry at Tsukuba University when he became involved with Aum, according to Kyodo news agency.
He was charged with murder and attempted murder in the subway gassing and other attacks.
He was accused of heading the cult's drive to develop chemical weapons including VX, mustard and sarin gases.
Sarin was used in the March 1995 attack, which killed 12 people and left 5,000 people injured.
Tsuchiya also produced sarin gas for a July 1994 attack on a residential area in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto which killed seven people and injured 144 others, presiding judge Satoru Hattori said.
He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. It is not yet clear whether he plans to appeal. Ten other members of the cult who have already been sentenced to death have done so, and as such, have not yet been executed.
A feature of the Aum Shinrikyo case has been its marathon length. Tsuchiya's own trial has lasted more than eight years, in part because he dismissed his lawyers twice.
The hearings have involved 189 people, and will climax with the verdict on Mr Asahara, due on 27 February.
The cult leader has remained silent throughout most of his trial.
As well as the deaths caused by the subway gas attack in 1995, Mr Asahara is also charged with the 15 other killings alleged to have been carried out by the cult.
They include ordering the 1994 attack on Matsumoto.
Police raids and cult member confessions have revealed that Aum had numerous plans to overthrow the government.
The group has now renounced violence, and renamed itself Aleph, but the Japanese authorities still operate tight surveillance over it.
One of their favorite claims, in fact, is that the US is the only major industrialized country that does retain the death penalty.
On campus, rank and file Mumia-Cong are simply not aware of Japan's death penalty and often flatly refuse to believe it when told.
To them, Japan is a peaceful, enlightened country of flower-arranging atom-bomb victims and could not possibly be killing people under judicial order.
These are generally the same brain-dead slogan-chanting conformists who refuse to believe that socialistic, navel-gazing Sweden has an army, let alone conscription.
This part kind of makes me giggle.
"Coming at cha!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.