ID :
33333
Mon, 12/01/2008 - 20:46
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/33333
The shortlink copeid
Agency seeks extension of AUM surveillance, addition of Joyu group
TOKYO, Dec. 1 Kyodo - The Public Security Intelligence Agency filed a request Monday with the Public Security Examination Commission to keep the AUM Shinrikyo cult under surveillance for another three years.
The agency, an organization under the Justice Ministry, also requested that a
group led by former senior AUM member Fumihiro Joyu be subject to surveillance
during the period.
The surveillance, initially imposed on AUM in January 2000 based on a law for
restricting the activities of certain groups and extended twice for three years
each, is set to expire at the end of next month.
The commission will decide whether to extend the surveillance after examining
the document the agency filed for the extension as well as hearing the opinions
of AUM and Joyu's group.
AUM, founded by Shoko Asahara, 53, who has been convicted of masterminding the
1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other crimes, continues
activities, having renamed itself Aleph.
Meanwhile, Joyu, 45, who has left AUM and set up a new group last year called
''Hikari no Wa'' (The Circle of Rainbow Light), says his group will cast aside
the influence of Asahara.
But the security agency asserts in its extension request that Hikari no Wa is
only pretending as if it has cast off Asahara's influence in order to avoid
being subject to the agency's surveillance.
It says Aleph has made clearer its policy that emphasizes belief in Asahara,
who is currently on death row after being given capital punishment at the Tokyo
District Court in 2004.
The agency says it has determined that continued surveillance is necessary as
''the mastermind of indiscriminate mass murder (Asahara) has influence on the
group's activities and there is danger that it could engage in mass murder.''
The death sentence for Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, became
final in 2006 after the Supreme Court turned down a defense appeal against a
Tokyo High Court decision that upheld the district court decision.
The law for restricting the activities of certain groups, which went into
effect in December 1999, allows authorities to keep watch over groups that
committed indiscriminate mass murder and pose a threat to the public.
It stipulates that the surveillance period for such a group may be extended if
someone who has engineered indiscriminate mass killings continues to have
influence on the group.
According to the agency, there are approximately 1,300 AUM members and about
200 Hikari no Wa members in Japan, with another 200 or so followers of both
groups combined in Russia.
Since the previous surveillance extension in January 2006, the security agency
has conducted about 56 on-site inspections at numerous AUM facilities.
Extending the surveillance period on AUM would make it possible for the
agency's inspectors to continue to carry out on-site checks and oblige AUM to
report the names and addresses of key members.
==Kyodo
The agency, an organization under the Justice Ministry, also requested that a
group led by former senior AUM member Fumihiro Joyu be subject to surveillance
during the period.
The surveillance, initially imposed on AUM in January 2000 based on a law for
restricting the activities of certain groups and extended twice for three years
each, is set to expire at the end of next month.
The commission will decide whether to extend the surveillance after examining
the document the agency filed for the extension as well as hearing the opinions
of AUM and Joyu's group.
AUM, founded by Shoko Asahara, 53, who has been convicted of masterminding the
1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other crimes, continues
activities, having renamed itself Aleph.
Meanwhile, Joyu, 45, who has left AUM and set up a new group last year called
''Hikari no Wa'' (The Circle of Rainbow Light), says his group will cast aside
the influence of Asahara.
But the security agency asserts in its extension request that Hikari no Wa is
only pretending as if it has cast off Asahara's influence in order to avoid
being subject to the agency's surveillance.
It says Aleph has made clearer its policy that emphasizes belief in Asahara,
who is currently on death row after being given capital punishment at the Tokyo
District Court in 2004.
The agency says it has determined that continued surveillance is necessary as
''the mastermind of indiscriminate mass murder (Asahara) has influence on the
group's activities and there is danger that it could engage in mass murder.''
The death sentence for Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, became
final in 2006 after the Supreme Court turned down a defense appeal against a
Tokyo High Court decision that upheld the district court decision.
The law for restricting the activities of certain groups, which went into
effect in December 1999, allows authorities to keep watch over groups that
committed indiscriminate mass murder and pose a threat to the public.
It stipulates that the surveillance period for such a group may be extended if
someone who has engineered indiscriminate mass killings continues to have
influence on the group.
According to the agency, there are approximately 1,300 AUM members and about
200 Hikari no Wa members in Japan, with another 200 or so followers of both
groups combined in Russia.
Since the previous surveillance extension in January 2006, the security agency
has conducted about 56 on-site inspections at numerous AUM facilities.
Extending the surveillance period on AUM would make it possible for the
agency's inspectors to continue to carry out on-site checks and oblige AUM to
report the names and addresses of key members.
==Kyodo
