Ex-member of Aum Shin Rikyo thanks victims for help healing

[June, 1998]

After choosing not to appeal his sentence of life imprisonment, former Aum Shin Rikyo member Ikuo Hayashi, published an article in the July issue of Bungeishunju magazine in which he expresses gratitude to the victims of the cult's 1995 Tokyo subway attack for helping him "recover his humanity." Hayashi did not receive the death sentence because he had shown remorse for his actions. Twelve people died in 1995 and thousands were injured when Aum Shin Rikyo members released sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway.