Tokyo, Japan - The former leader of a Japanese doomsday cult sentenced to hang for masterminding a 1995 fatal gas attack on Tokyo subways has been found to be mentally fit to continue his appeal, Japanese media said on Monday, quoting a report by a court-appointed psychiatrist.
Lawyers for Shoko Asahara had argued that the 50-year-old ex-head of Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect) was incompetent and had requested that the case be suspended.
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, was found guilty of responsibility for the nerve gas attack that killed 12 and sickened thousands, and was sentenced to death by a Tokyo court in February 2004.
The results of the psychiatric evaluation clear the way for the Tokyo High Court either to proceed with the appeal, where Asahara's death sentence is widely expected to be upheld, or to dismiss it, thus finalising the verdict, media said.
The report acknowledged that Asahara had developed some prison-related symptoms, but added he "does not suffer mental problems and he is able to communicate," Kyodo news agency reported. "He has not lost his litigation capacity."
A court spokesman confirmed that the report had been submitted but declined to give details, saying the court was still examining the contents.
The court could now dismiss the appeal since defense lawyers had missed a deadline for presenting a summary of their case. A decision could come next month, Japanese media said.
Asahara's lawyers said in November that the former guru has been unable to speak or to communicate with them and should be moved to a hospital for treatment for his mental condition.
They said that Asahara was incontinent, wore diapers and used a wheelchair, and that evaluations by psychiatrists hired by the defense team had shown he may be suffering from a brain disorder.
INCOHERENT REMARKS
The Tokyo High Court had rejected the defense's initial request to suspend the case, but had appointed a psychiatrist to conduct an evaluation on Asahara.
The defense team has criticised the court for refusing to recognize Asahara's illness and rushing to move on with the trial, saying the court was keen to finalize the death sentence.
About 5,500 people were injured, some permanently, when members of the cult released sarin, first developed by Nazi Germany, in Tokyo rush-hour trains on March 20, 1995.
The gassing, with its images of bodies lying across platforms and soldiers in gas masks sealing off Tokyo subway stations, stunned the Japanese public and shattered the country's self-image as a haven of public safety.
Asahara was also found guilty of other charges including a series of crimes that killed 15 people.
He pleaded not guilty but never testified and made mostly incoherent remarks in the court during the trial.
Asahara set up the cult in 1987, mixing Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings and attracting, at its peak, at least 10,000 members in Japan and overseas, among them graduates of some of the nation's elite universities.
The pudgy, nearly blind guru predicted that the United States would attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland.
Aum Shinri Kyo, which admitted involvement in the gassing, later changed its name to Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its leaders insist that the cult is now benign, but Japanese authorities still keep its membership of about 1,600 under surveillance.