JAPAN: Asahara’s Courtroom Trial Opens, Public Verdict Already In

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Apr 24 1996 (IPS) - The odds are heavily stacked against Shoko Asahara, the cult leader who amid tight security entered a Tokyo District Court Wednesday charged with masterminding last year’s Mar. 20 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack that left 11 people dead.

The police, ably assisted by the Japanese Press, has through careful leaks about the prosecution’s case, already convicted him in a public trial that has been going on ever since he was arrested last May.

Moreover, several of his once loyal followers have admitted their role in the deadly attack and have implicated the AUM sect leader who faces 17 charges, ranging from murder to attempted murder, to kidnapping and illegal drug production.

If convicted of more than one murder charge, the 41-year-old half blind guru will be sentenced to death by hanging, and informal surveys indicate that in the minds of the Japanese public, the sooner done the better.

“I really don’t see the point in having a trial for the devil (Asahara) at all,” says Junko Tada, a 42-year-old housewife. “It’s a waste of public money.”

Tada’s feelings may reflect the thinking of the majority in Japan, but the fact that the AUM sect movement which Asahara founded in 1987 has survived the Press and police onslaught of the past 12 months, indicates that even if Asahara is convicted, his memory may continue to loom over Japan.

Police reported this week that Aum sect followers, mainly women, continue to distribute leaflets at various platforms in the Tokyo subway, proclaiming the virtues of the arrested leader.

Some have even staked out the detention house where Asahara has been confined, saying they only wished “to receive energy from the guru”.

Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is a long-haired yoga expert who claims to be the reincarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu elephant-God.

He has taught his followers that to attain salvation they must be completely devoted to the faith — that can be done by among other things, donating material wealth to the sect and working for its expansion.

Followers continue to do just that. They claim their membership is in the thousands despite the police crackdowns that have seen 105 present and former cult members tried and convicted on charges related to the nerve gas attack, kidnapping and possession and or production of illegal drugs.

Among those that have faced trial already are senior cult members who have already pleaded guilty to releasing the sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. Two others have admitted involvement in the planning stages of an attack.

One of them, Yoshihiro Inoue, the former intelligence chief in the cult, appeared in court last month when he testified of being “ordered” by Asahara to carry out the sarin attack that injured more than 3,000 people.

Another key witness to be called by the police is Kiyohide Hayakawa, a high-ranking member in the cult who is reported to have confessed to strangling a lawyer who had been hired by the parents of Aum members to sue the Asahara for falsely luring their children into the sect.

The lawyer’s wife and son were killed by the same murderers, according leaked police reports which say the brutal acts were carried out on instruction by Asahara who will face separate murder charges related to these incidents.

In the face of a strong prosecution case and a public demanding a speedy end to the trial, Asahara’s 12 state-appointed lawyers are expected to try to draw out the case.

But the Japanese public is unlikely to soften over time, nor is Tokyo likely to bow to pressure from human rights groups to abolish the death penalty while Asahara is on trial.

“There is no doubt that the Asahara case has dealt a terrible blow to our fight for better human rights protection in Japan,” says Akiko Takada, head of the Forum Against the Death Penalty, a civic group with 5,500 members including lawyers and academics.

According to Takada, the deep public aversion to Aum has given the authorities leverage to widen their powers at the expense of the basic human rights.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International says that in Japan, there is comparatively more room for error in carrying out the death penalty than in other industrialised nations.

Moreover, activists say the death sentence is carried out in an inhumane way.

The prisoner is not informed of the day of execution which is usually when the guard knocks on the door, takes the convict to a small room with a Buddhist altar and offers him a last meal.

Also, the justice ministry does not inform relatives of the hanging till after the incident.

Human rights activists also point out that guilty verdicts are reached mainly on the basis of confessions taken in police custody, with defendants often claiming they were forced. Japanese law allow suspects to be interrogated in police cells for 21 days without access to their own lawyers.

“In Japan punishment of wrongdoers take precedence over the greater respect for human rights,” acknowledges Tada. But in the case of Asahara, she says the “emotional backlash against Aum” is understandable and indeed justifiable.