TOKYO, July 25 (Kyodo) The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered AUM Shinrikyo religious cult founder Shoko Asahara to pay about 464 million yen in compensation to eight relatives of four victims of a June 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Kazuo Ichimiya said Asahara ''sufficiently acknowledged the lethality of sarin and conducted the crime with the intention of murdering many residents in the neighborhood.''
The plaintiffs filed the 545 million yen damages suit in August 1995, about one year after the attack. But proceedings were suspended for nearly four years after the court decided in December 1996 to observe the proceedings of Asahara's trial on criminal charges.
Considering evidence and testimony from former senior cult members, Ichimiya ruled the attack was a planned and organized crime under Asahara's instructions and carried out by cult members. The court decided in February this year not to put Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, on the stand, believing the leader would not testify voluntarily.
Seven people were killed and 144 others injured in the gas attack on the central Japan city at around 10:40 p.m. on June 27, 1994. The crime is believed to have been carried out in connection with a separate civil suit in which the cult was trying to obtain land in Matsumoto to establish an AUM Shinrikyo branch.
Fearing an unfavorable ruling, the cult released sarin gas near the home of the presiding judge. The attack was allegedly also organized by Asahara to test the effectiveness of sarin, which was later used in an attack on the Tokyo subway system.
''Defendant (Asahara) had absolute power within the cult and planned the murder of the judge with a sense of crisis on the ruling at the Nagano District Court's Matsumoto branch,'' Ichimiya said.
Asahara has been ordered to pay more than 2.5 billion yen in compensation in connection with cases allegedly committed by the cult throughout the country, but has no funds and therefore payment is considered unlikely.
In this case, the judge awarded less compensation than the plaintiffs had originally asked for because they had already received payments from a court-appointed trustee in the cult's bankruptcy.
In March 1998, the plaintiffs and the cult reached a settlement in which the cult agreed to pay about 510 million yen in compensation.
In June 1996, the plaintiffs sued nine other cult members allegedly involved in the 1994 gas attack. The nine were ordered to pay a total of 100 million yen in damages to the plaintiffs. However, it is said that none of the payments have been made.
Asahara has been indicted on 13 criminal charges, including those related to a 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system which left 12 people dead and injured thousands.
AP-NY-07-25-01 0206EDT
Copyright 2001 The Kyodo News Service.