The Justice Ministry executed former Aum Supreme Truth cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, on Friday morning.
Six of his followers who were senior members in the cult were also executed.
The cult committed heinous and indiscriminate terrorist attacks, including the fatal sarin nerve gas attacks in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994 and on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, as well as the murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family in 1989.
The series of crimes claimed the lives of 29, with more than 6,500 injured.
According to the final decision, Matsumoto, 63, directed senior executive cult members to kill the Sakamotos in November 1989.
Sarin nerve gas was then released in Nagano Prefecture, killing seven people in June 1994, and in the Tokyo subway system in March 1995, killing another 12 people. Aum was found to have committed 10 incidents, including the kidnapping and imprisoning of Kiyoshi Kariya, the chief of the Meguro public notary office in Tokyo, who was later killed, and the murder of a man using the highly toxic VX gas.
A total of 192 suspects were indicted over the series of cases, and 13 of them including Matsumoto who were involved in the three major incidents -- the Sakamotos' murder and sarin attacks in Nagano and Tokyo -- were sentenced to death.
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