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Cult Founder Ordered to Pay 465 Million Yen in Japan
The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered Aum Supreme Truth religious cult founder Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, to pay about 465 million yen to eight family members of four victims of a 1994 sarin nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
Presiding Judge Kazuo Ichimiya said in the ruling, "The horror of the victims, who were killed painfully without knowing what was happening, is beyond imagination."
The ruling ordered the cult leader to pay 465 million yen out of 545 million yen that was originally demanded as compensation by family members. But because Matsumoto has no ability to pay the compensation, actual payment is considered impossible.
Families of victims in two other Aum incidents--the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and murders of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and members of his family--have also filed suits demanding compensation. Orders that Matsumoto pay compensation to the families in those two cases were finalized in the first hearing without Matsumoto presenting defense statements.
If Matsumoto does not appeal in the case of the June 1994 sarin attack in Nagano Prefecture, all the civil suits against him concerning major incidents involving Aum will be finalized.
In the suit over the 1994 attack, in which seven people were killed, Matsumoto presented a defense statement and denied his involvement in the attack. But the ruling clearly recognized that the attack was a massacre carried out on the instructions and orders of Matsumoto.
Victims' family members filed a suit against Matsumoto and the cult group in August 1995 and later included nine more defendants, including former executive cult members who were believed to be involved in the Nagano Prefecture attack or the production of sarin gas.
Rulings concerning the nine defendants were finalized in 1996 and 1997, ordering them to pay all the amounts demanded by the family members.
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