AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara should face the same treatment a deceased victim of the cult's deadly gas attacks went through, a bereaved family member told the Tokyo District on Thursday.
"I want [Asahara] to face what my father did," the eldest daughter of sarin gas-attack victim Mitsuo Okada told the court during the cult founder's trial hearing Thursday. "I want him to breathe in sarin and get hooked up to an artificial respirator, then lie on a bed for a year and a half not being able to do anything."
Okada died in a coma at the age of 52, 15 months after the cult's gas attacks on Tokyo subways in 1995 that killed 12 and caused thousands to fall ill.
"I still hate to think about it," Okada's daughter said, adding that she couldn't forgive people in the cult, which she believed thought everything was all right as long as they had no problems themselves.
Several people who were seriously injured in the gas attacks have already given evidence at Asahara's trial. Testimonies from bereaved family members began Thursday. (Mainichi Shimbun)