TOKYO - Two daughters of Shoko Asahara, the jailed guru of the Aum Supreme Truth group blamed for the 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway, yesterday won a court battle against a magazine which chided them for living off the cult's wealth.
The Tokyo District Court ordered the magazine publisher, Mr Shinchosha, to pay 1.3 million yen (S$190,000) in damages to the two women and publish an apology.
The magazine Shukan Shincho last year reported the daughters, now aged 22 and 20, spent a month in Canada living on up to five million yen in cash from the cult's coffers.
The judge said the article was a 'total fabrication except for the fact that the daughters stayed in Canada'.
'They travelled to Canada for language training with funds they had earned from part-time jobs.'