Sep 20, 2016

Russian Supreme Court bans Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult

September 20, 2016
TASS
Aum Shinrikyo has been declared a terrorist organization.

“The court accepted the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to recognize Aum Shinrikyo as a terrorist organization, banning its activity on the territory of Russia,” the judge said.

Russia’s Supreme Court has banned the Aum Shinrikyo international religious group in the country, a TASS correspondent reported on Sept. 20.

“The court accepted the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to recognize Aum Shinrikyo as a terrorist organization, banning its activity on the territory of Russia,” the judge said.

The court session was held behind the closed doors.

Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Japanese national Shoko Asahara in 1987 and made global headlines in 1995 when its followers sprayed the lethal sarin nerve gas in Tokyo metro trains. The terrorist act claimed the lives of 13 people. In September 1999, the Japanese Public Security Investigation Agency said Asahara had admitted using sarin. A court found him guilty in 2004 of thirteen out of the seventeen charges and sentenced him to death.

Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case this April over setting up of the group. The investigators said unidentified persons had set up a union of followers of the Aum Shinrikyo group in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Between 2012 and 2014, the group raised money via the internet to carry out its illegal activity that involved “violence against citizens and injury to their health,” the investigators said.

http://rbth.com/news/2016/09/20/russian-supreme-court-bans-aum-shinrikyo-doomsday-cult_631565

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