Death Penalty Sought for Guru

Japanese prosecutors demanded the death penalty for the guru of the Aum Supreme Truth cult yesterday, as the country's biggest trial since the end of the second world war entered its final stages.

Wrapping up a seven-year legal case, prosecution lawyers accused Shoko Asahara of mass murder by masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground, which killed 12 people and debilitated thousands more.

"It was indiscriminate terrorism, the most atrocious and heinous offence in the history of crime," the legal team said in a 300-page closing statement. "The defendant clearly preached a dangerous doctrine of murder and ordered the attacks to be carried out."

Mr Asahara, who told followers he was a reincarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, stood silently, yawning and making menacing gestures as the 13 charges against him were read out in the Tokyo district court.

The half-blind, 48-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all but the most minor charge of attempted murder. But no one in Japan is in any doubt that he will eventually hang for a series of crimes that traumatised the country.

Cult followers have testified that they released sarin in a residential district in the Nagano mountains, where seven people were killed in 1994. Followers have also confessed to the murder of a lawyer who challenged the cult, as well as his wife and child, in 1989.

Nine senior cult members have been sentenced to death for their role in these attacks, even though most of them claimed to have been brainwashed by their guru.

The defence team's strategy has been to drag out the trial. In more than 250 hearings, 171 witnesses have testified.

Mr Asahara has refused to recognise the legal team appointed on his behalf by the government. In the early stages of the trial, he disrupted proceedings by spouting gibberish and claiming he would levitate across the courtroom.

But in 2000, amid growing criticism about the snail's pace of the trial, prosecutors dropped four lesser charges to hasten the conclusion.

A judgment is expected early next year, after defence lawyers present their argument in October.

But with an appeal to the high court and supreme court likely, Mr Asahara's final court appearance may be several years away.