Cult leader ordered to pay gas victims

Thousands were hurt in the Sarin gas attack

The leader of Japan's doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo has been ordered to pay $3.7m in compensation to the families of four victims of a nerve gas attack seven years ago.

The Tokyo district court said blind cult guru Shoko Asahara, currently on trial for murder, was behind the 1994 attack on the central Japanese town of Matsumoto, which killed seven people.

The cult has tried to distance itself from Asahara

Asahara is also accused of being behind the better known assault on the Tokyo subway system the following year, which left 12 people dead and sickened hundreds of others.

He was charged with 13 criminal offences arising from the Tokyo attack and faced separate civil suits from relatives of the victims.

The Aum cult preached that the world was coming to an end.

Asahara responsible

A Tokyo district court judge ruled that Asahara was the mastermind behind the attack in Matsumoto in 1994.

Members of the Aum cult sprayed lethal sarin gas from a van in a district which housed court officials who had ordered the closure of a sect office.

Seven people were killed and more than a hundred others were made ill.

Tokyo attack

The following year, the cult launched its better-known onslaught on the Tokyo subway.

Twelve people were killed and hundreds sickened when cult members unleashed sarin during the morning rush hour.

Asahara did not testify at the civil hearing. But at his criminal trial he has denied being behind the production of sarin or ordering his followers to commit murder.

Four of his deputies have so far been sentenced to death.

Aum has since changed its name and has tried to distance itself from its former leader.

The Japanese media says it is continuing to attract followers through the internet.