Editing Aum Shinrikyo (section)

===Tokyo subway sarin attack and related incidents===
{{main|Tokyo subway sarin attack}}

[[File:サティアン.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Aum Shinrikyo facility in [[Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi|Kamikuishiki]], September 8, 1996]]
On the morning of 20 March 1995, Aum members released a [[binary chemical weapon]], most closely chemically similar to sarin, in a coordinated attack on five trains in the [[Tokyo subway]] system, killing 13 commuters, seriously injuring 54, and affecting 980 more. Some estimates claim as many as 6,000 people were injured by the sarin. It is difficult to obtain exact numbers since many victims are reluctant to come forward.<ref>Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum, Philip Gabriel, ''Underground'', Vintage International, 2001.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

Prosecutors allege that Asahara was tipped off by an insider about planned police raids on cult facilities and ordered an attack in central Tokyo to divert police attention away from the group. The attack evidently backfired, and police conducted huge simultaneous raids on cult compounds across the country.<ref>[[Richard Danzig|Danzig, Richard]], [[Marc Sageman]], Terrance Leighton, Lloyd Hough, Hidemi Yuki, Rui Kotani and Zachary M. Hosford, "[http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS_AumShinrikyo_Danzig_1.pdf Aum Shinrikyo:  Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324102229/http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS_AumShinrikyo_Danzig_1.pdf|date=24 March 2012}}", ''[[Center for a New American Security]]'', July 2011; accessed 12 July 2018.</ref>

Over the next week, the full scale of Aum's activities was revealed for the first time. At the cult's headquarters in [[Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi|Kamikuishiki]], on the foot of [[Mount Fuji]], police found explosives, chemical weapons, and a Russian [[Mil Mi-17|Mi-17-1V]] military helicopter (4K-15214).<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.helicopter-database.de/data-aircraft-record.php?index=XXX08E-341M014_2|title=4K-15214|website=helicopter-database.de}}</ref> While the finding of [[biological warfare]] agents such as [[anthrax]] and [[Ebola]] [[Cell cultures|cultures]] was reported, those claims now appear to have been widely exaggerated.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smitheson|first1=Amy E.|title=Ataxia: The Chemical and Biological Terrorism Threat and the US Response|date=9 October 2000|page=77|url=https://www.stimson.org/wp-content/files/file-attachments/atxchapter3_1.pdf|access-date=6 October 2023}}</ref> There were stockpiles of chemicals that could be used for producing enough sarin to kill four million people.<ref name=CT1>{{cite book|last=Townshend|first=Charles|title=Terrorism: a very short introduction|year=2011|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|location=Oxford [u.a.]|isbn=9780199603947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pii3jii9qA4C&pg=PA116|edition=2nd|access-date=7 August 2012|page=116|quote=(... enough Sarin in Aum's possession to kill over 4 million people).}}</ref>

Police also found laboratories to manufacture drugs such as [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]], [[methamphetamine]], and a crude form of [[truth serum]], a safe containing millions of U.S. dollars in cash and gold, and cells, many still containing prisoners. During the raids, Aum issued statements claiming that the chemicals were for fertilizers. Over the next six weeks, over 150 cult members were arrested for a variety of offenses. The media were stationed outside Aum's Tokyo headquarters on Komazawa Dori in [[Aoyama, Tokyo|Aoyama]] for months after the attack and arrests, waiting for action and to get images of the cult's other members. On 30 March 1995, Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the [[National Police Agency (Japan)|National Police Agency]], was shot four times near his house in Tokyo and was seriously wounded. While many suspected Aum involvement in the shooting, the ''[[Sankei Shimbun]]'' reported that [[Hiroshi Nakamura (dissident)|Hiroshi Nakamura]] is suspected of the crime, but nobody has been charged;<ref>{{Cite web |title=警察庁長官銃撃で７７歳男が犯行示唆の供述 「秘密の暴露」 (1/3ページ) - MSN産経ニュース |url=http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/crime/080320/crm0803200217005-n1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321234317/http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/crime/080320/crm0803200217005-n1.htm |archive-date=2008-03-21 |access-date=2025-09-12 |website=sankei.jp.msn.com |language=ja-JP}}</ref> Nakamura would later confess to the crime.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Japan Today - News - Man confesses to shooting Japan's top cop in 1995 |url=http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/431698 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321130156/http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/431698 |archive-date=2008-03-21 |access-date=2025-09-12 |website=www.japantoday.com}}</ref>

On 23 April 1995, [[Hideo Murai]], the head of Aum's Ministry of Science, was stabbed to death outside the cult's Tokyo headquarters amidst a crowd of about 100 reporters, in front of cameras. The man responsible, a Korean member of [[Yamaguchi-gumi]], was arrested and eventually convicted of the murder. His motive remains unknown. On the evening of 5 May, a burning paper bag was discovered in a toilet in Tokyo's busy [[Shinjuku station]]. Upon examination, it was revealed that it was a [[hydrogen cyanide]] device which, had it not been extinguished in time, would have released enough gas into the ventilation system to potentially kill 10,000 commuters.<ref name=chrono/> On 4 July, several undetonated cyanide devices were found at other locations in the Tokyo subway.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/425960/HERES-A-CHRONOLOGY-OF-POISON-GAS-ATTACKS-IN-JAPAN.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322174059/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/425960/HERES-A-CHRONOLOGY-OF-POISON-GAS-ATTACKS-IN-JAPAN.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 March 2015|title=Here's a chronology of poison gas attacks in Japan|work=[[Deseret News]]| date= 5 July 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/07/04/Four-injured-by-Tokyo-station-gas-fumes/1840804830400|title= Four injured by Tokyo station gas fumes|publisher=United Press International|date=4 July 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Tucker|first1=Jonathan B.|title=Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons|date=February 2000|page=219|publisher=MIT Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MrPyPP7gkHYC|isbn=9780262700719}}</ref>

During this time, numerous cult members were arrested for various offenses, but arrests of the most senior members on the charge of the subway gassing had not yet taken place. In June, an individual unrelated to Aum had launched a copycat attack by hijacking [[All Nippon Airways Flight 857]], a Boeing 747 bound for Hakodate from Tokyo. The hijacker claimed to be an Aum member in possession of sarin and plastic explosives, but these claims were ultimately found to be false.<ref name="LAT">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=1995-06-25|title=Hijacker Used Clay, Water as Fake Weapons|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-25-mn-17159-story.html|access-date=2021-02-13|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

Asahara was finally found hiding within a wall of a cult building known as "The 6th Satian" in the Kamikuishiki complex on 16 May and was arrested.<ref name=chrono/> On the same day, the cult mailed a parcel bomb to the office of [[Yukio Aoshima]], the governor of Tokyo, blowing off the fingers of his secretary's hand. Asahara was initially charged with 23 counts of murder and 16 other offenses. The trial, dubbed "the trial of the century" by the press, ruled Asahara guilty of masterminding the attack and [[Capital punishment in Japan|sentenced him to death]]. The indictment was appealed unsuccessfully. Several senior members accused of participation, such as Masami Tsuchiya, also received death sentences.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

The reasons why a small circle of mostly senior Aum members committed atrocities and the extent of personal involvement by Asahara remain unclear, although several theories have attempted to explain these events. In response to the prosecution's charge that Asahara ordered the subway attacks to distract authorities, the defense maintained that Asahara was not aware of events, pointing to his deteriorating health. Shortly after his arrest, Asahara abandoned his post as the organization's leader, and maintained silence afterward, refusing to communicate even with lawyers and family members.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}