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Japan police raid cult for resort attack evidence

TOKYO: Japanese police raided the doomsday cult accused of the Tokyo subway gas attacks on Friday to search for evidence that it carried out a separate gas attack in a mountain resort last year, media reports said.

The raids came as Shoko Asahara, bearded guru of the Aum Shinri Kyo (Aum Supreme Truth Sect), was due to be indicted on Monday on charges of masterminding a sarin nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, central Japan, in June last year, the reports said.

Police suspect Asahara ordered the attack in an attempt to kill two judges who were expected to give an unfavourable ruling on a land dispute involving his sect, the reports said.

The reports were based on police news briefings from which foreign media are excluded. Police decline to comment on reports of investigations in progress.

The two judges are still in hospital and the trial has been suspended. The attack killed seven people and made 200 ill.

Asahara and over 30 cult officials have already been indicted on charges of murder and attempted murder concerning the March subway attacks, in which 11 people were killed and about 5,500 became ill from sarin released in rush-hour trains.

The cult is also suspected of carrying out a spate of other killings and of planning to produce a range of nuclear and chemical weapons, media reports have said.

Friday's raid came after arrested followers told police that some of the equipment used in the Matsumoto attack was hidden in a cult complex at the foot of Mount Fuji, NHK public television said.

Police suspect that Aum sprayed more than 12 litres (3.2 gallons) of sarin in Matsumoto, about three times the volume used in the Tokyo subway attack, according to NHK. Police suspect the cult used a modified van to spray the gas, it said.-Reuter