Jail demand for Japan cult leader's wife

Japanese prosecutors have demanded a ten-year prison sentence for the wife of Shoko Asahara, the leader of a cult accused of carrying out a nerve gas attack in Tokyo nearly three years ago.

Asahara's wife, Tomoko Matsumoto, is accused of failing to prevent some of the cult's crimes, and of ordering the murder of a man in the cult's compound.

Prosecutors say she has shown no remorse for her crimes and wants the cult to regain its strength.

The Aum Supreme Truth cult once threatened to overthrow the Japanese government, and its leader has been on trial for over a year.

The nerve gas attack in the Tokyo underground system killed six people and made five-thousand people ill.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service