Last fugitive from 1995 gas attack on subway is arrested in Japan

The last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult’s deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subway in 1995 was arrested at a comic book cafe yesterday, closing a chapter on Japan’s worst terrorist attack.

Katsuya Takahashi had altered his appearance and reportedly used a fake name to evade arrest, but admitted who he was when approached by police at the cafe in downtown Tokyo.

The former bodyguard for the Aum Shinrikyo cult leader, Takahashi had been on Japan’s most wanted list for years for his suspected participation in the sarin gas attack that killed 13 people and injured about 6,000.

According to local media reports, he worked for a construction company and avoided capture for years by using fake names, wearing a surgical mask on the job and seeking assignments that did not involve meeting people.

The manhunt took on a new lease of life after the arrest of another cult fugitive, Naoko Kikuchi, at the start of this month. He reportedly lived with Takahashi and had information about his whereabouts. Thousands of officers hunted for Takahashi across the capital, handing out fresh photos and monitoring transport hubs to keep him from escaping.

He disappeared from his job after Kikuchi’s arrest, but an employee at the comic book cafe where he was found said he had visited the shop several times recently.

At the time of the deadly attack in the mid-Nineties, the Aum cult had amassed an arsenal of chemical, biological and conventional weapons in anticipation of an apocalyptic showdown with the government.

Top cultists sometimes used illegal drugs and electric shocks to brainwash followers with apocalyptic teachings. Police reportedly found about a dozen Aum textbooks in Takahashi’s bag yesterday in a coin-operated locker, and plan to examine whether he is still controlled by the cult teachings.

Masaki Kito, a lawyer and a long-time Aum watcher, said Takahashi’s arrest and investigation could provide a fuller picture of the cult’s crimes.

“The case has never been fully resolved,” Kito said. “He was a last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.”

Nearly 200 cult members have been convicted in the 1995 attack and dozens of other crimes. Thirteen, including cult guru Shoko Asahara, are on death row.

Police have been criticised for a series of mistakes in the investigation. They were aware that there was something ominous about the group, which had a highly guarded commune at the foot of Mount Fuji, but they could not prevent the sarin attack.

Takahashi had been Asahara’s bodyguard, and authorities say he was assigned to the cult’s “intelligence ministry” in charge of plotting attacks and coverup schemes. He allegedly helped one of the members who released sarin on one of the subway lines escape from the scene. He is also suspected in a 1995 cult-related kidnapping-murder, as well as a mail bomb that injured a Tokyo city employee.

Police had come close to capturing Takahashi and Kikuchi in 1996. They had traced them to an apartment in Tokorozawa city, just north of Tokyo, but lost them just before raiding the hideout.

Takahashi disappeared for many years, but the recent arrests of the other two fugitives helped police get back on his trail. Makoto Hirata, 47, charged in the 1995 kidnapping-murder as well as the subway attack, surrendered to police on New Year’s Eve. Kikuchi, 40, was arrested earlier this month.