Ex-Aum cult member released from prison after serving full term

Well -- despite being involved with that bunch of terrorists, the fact that he turned himself in and the fact that he apologised to the victims, certainly makes a mitigation. It's glad sometimes to see people being rehabilitated.

It brings to mind the case of Kazuaki Okazaki, also a member of Aum who abandoned it after the Sakamoto murders. He also turned himself in, but he was deep in mud and he was hanged.

It's always interesting to see how the courts handle mitigation.

That all said, my deepest sympathies to the victims of this all.

The main objective of imprisonment is self regret and rehabilitation.

9 years is incredibly light for a senior member of a terrorist group who helped arrange - and knew about - attacks that killed so many, and destroyed thousands of lives.

The scum should rot forever in prison.

He served his full term, so should be released, as simple as that.

Can criticize the sentence he was given however you want, but he served the terms of what he was given. Given that he turned himself in and was apologetic during his incarceration, I would say that there a lot of headway towards rehabilitation already so the shorter sentence makes sense.

I do hope that there was a lot of therapy over those 9 years too, but I doubt that kind of information would be (nor should be) disclosed.

This is they guy who turned himself in at two different police stations. At the first one a policeman basically told him to get lost and stop joking. He later went to a second police station where they took him seriously.

In the meantime he also visited Ebisu. I have often wondered if he dropped in to What the Dickens for a pint as it had previously been an Aum temple.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/18/national/crime-legal/the-new-years-prank-that-was-anything-but/

Hirata was also a suspect in the 1995 shooting of Takaji Kunimatsu, the head of the National Police Agency. (Kunimatsu recovered.) There were several false confessions but I don't think anyone has been convicted.

It seems to be a thing here that the perpetrator of a crime gets to write to the victim's family from behind bars.

9 Years ? ? ?

What the heck ?

For those wondering why the sentence was seemingly so lenient, let me explain.

First, the man was NOT charged in connection with the sarin gas attack. As far as was provable, he wasn’t involved.

Second, the crimes he WAS charged with (and seemingly convicted of) were: being involved in the bombing of a condo (the article doesn’t say HOW he was involved, so it’s possible it was only marginally), the arson attack against an Aum facility (again, the article doesn’t mention what his involvement entailed), and the kidnapping resulting in death of the clerk. This is the only charge the article specifies how he was involved. He was the lookout. He wasn’t involved in the actual kidnapping, nor the injecting of the anesthesia that killed the man. While he was certainly directly involved MORALLY in the man’s death, he didn’t “pull the trigger”, so to speak, and so likely wasn’t charged with murder; rather, he was likely charged as an accomplice to kidnapping and murder, which is a lesser charge.

There aren’t enough details in the article about what crimes he was actually charged with and his degree of involvement in the first two crimes.

His apology and turning himself in means nothing. He is still guilty and he needs to stay in jail for life. People need to stop using an murderer’s apology as “oh they’re very sorry” they’re only sorry they got caught

Put this guy in a train car with a tad of Sarin released and make him go for a walk. Then it'll be Time Served".

...Was directly responsible for someone's death and didn't face up to it for 17 years. He served his full sentence. I don't see anything to suggest he was rehabilitated

Yes, again the typical visible part of the iceberg. But the invisible 90% are consisting of those still existing three successor groups and the 50% chance that he didn’t change at all but wrote the excusing letters only to get out of prison much earlier than one would usually think he would have had to serve in full for all that happened and involved in.

9 years isn't enough in my view.

I lost a friend in the sarin attack he worked on the subway lives near my place and most mornings we traveled together.

That morning my mother call asking how my new born daughter was doing so I missed leaving with him and missed being on the train that was attacked.

Later the remaining members of the cult using a false name rented the commercial space on the ground floor of the building my friend's widow lived so they could be close to their leaders in the prison across the river from us.

Sorry I am still not ready to forgive or forget!

9 Years ? ? ?

What the heck ?

Should have been life in prison or execution.

Writing a bunch of letters doesnt exuse the killing of innocent people !

If this is how the Japanese government deals with a lethal terrorist organization then the justice system is undoubtedly corrupt.

after nearly 17 years on the run. In 2014, he was given the nine-year jail term

yeah......that math makes sense.

So, how long before he does his next terroristic act? Good job Japanese court system.