of senior followers were arrested on other charges, most notably in connection with the Tokyo subway attack. All of those implicated in the Sakamoto murders received death sentences. The court found that the murder was committed by order of the group's founder, Shoko Asahara, although not all of the perpetrators testified to this effect, and Asahara denied involvement. Asahara's legal team claims that blaming him is an attempt to shift personal responsibility to a higher authority. After the culpability of Tokyo Broadcasting System in the murders was uncovered, the network was swamped with complaints and eventually the company's president would resign. Trial, conviction, and sentencing of the perpetrators Following the Tokyo attacks, police charged Aum members Hideo Murai, Tomomasa Nakagawa, Kazuaki Okazaki, and Satoro Hashimoto with the murder of the Sakamoto family. Okazaki's trial was the shortest, as he pleaded guilty to all charges. Murai never made it to trial, as he was stabbed to death by a Korean assassin in April 1995 as he was being transferred by police. Okazaki was found guilty in October 1998. In 2000, the last two perpetrators, Nakagawa and Hashimoto, were convicted of the murders. On July 25, 2000, Okazaki, Nakagawa, and Hashimoto were sentenced to death. On 28 July 2000, Kiyohide Hayakawa was sentenced to death for his role in the murder. In 2017, Nakagawa published a memoir from prison in which he renounced his Aum beliefs, apologized to the families of his victims, and referred to Aum leader Shoko Asahara as a "criminal". Following the 2017 death of Kim Jong-nam (the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un), Nakagawa wrote a letter from prison in which he expressed his belief that Kim Jong-nam had died from VX poisoning, quantities of which Aum Shinrikyo had produced and used in the 1990s. Nakagawa was executed on July 6, 2018, while Okazaki and Hashimoto were executed on July 26, 2018 (18 years and one day after being sentenced). See also Aum Shinrikyo Capital punishment in Japan List of executions in Japan References Haruki Murakami, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, Vintage, , LoC BP605.O88.M8613 External links handled down by courts in Japan against the Unification Church (Archive) Attacks by Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo Broadcasting System Japanese murder victims Murder in Japan People from Yokosuka, Kanagawa People murdered in Japan 1989 murders in Japan November 1989 events in Asia Family murders 1956 births 1989