
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995                   TAG: 9506070067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Medium

DOOMSDAY CULT LEADER CHARGED IN GAS ATTACK

Doomsday cult guru Shoko Asahara was charged Tuesday with masterminding the nerve-gas attack that terrified Japan, but court battles to decide his fate could last into the next century.

Asahara claimed he was a victim of a vendetta and accused police interrogators of trying to intimidate him. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of death by hanging.

Tuesday's announcement of murder and attempted murder charges against Asahara and six followers of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult comforted a nation that has been reminded daily of the horrors of the March 20 attack on Tokyo's subways.

Twelve people died and 5,500 were sickened by the nerve gas sarin released into the capital's subways.

Asahara, the sect's bearded, partially blind guru, has been under interrogation since he was seized three weeks ago in a coffin-like chamber at Aum's commune in the shadow of Mount Fuji.

The 40-year-old cult leader, who has insisted he is innocent, told his lawyer Tuesday he expected the charges. ``The state aims to crush Aum,'' media reports quoted him as telling the lawyer.

Asahara also accused his interrogators of intimidation tactics, saying they called him a ``murder demon'' and said his blindness was caused by evil actions in a previous life, the reports said.

The legal proceedings that began Tuesday could drag on for 10 to 20 years. Japanese trials don't usually have sessions every day, and procedural issues could take years.

Lawyer Takashi Niimi said a complicated case like the subway attack could take 10 years to make its way through the district court level alone. Appeals, first to a regional high court and then to the Supreme Court, would add many more years.

Officials said Tuesday they might seek a court order that would break up Aum Shinri Kyo and strip it of its assets, but the timing was unclear.

Japanese authorities rarely bring charges without a nearly airtight case against a suspect. An astonishing 99 percent of all people who come to trial are convicted.

Deputy chief prosecutor Tatsuo Kainaka, in the first public comment by prosecutors in the case, told a news conference Tuesday he is confident prosecutors can prove Asahara ordered followers to produce sarin and release the deadly nerve gas into the subways.

Kainaka said it took more than two months to build a case because of the cult's tight-knit organization.

by CNB