TOKYO, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Police in Japan Saturday carried out a series of raids on the cult believed responsible for releasing deadly gas into a Tokyo subway in 1995.
The raids on the Aum Shinrikyo cult came a day after the Japanese Supreme Court dismissed cult founder Shoko Asahara's appeal of his death sentence for masterminding domestic terrorism crimes, The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reports.
A spokesman for the Japanese Intelligence Agency said the suspected cult members may have planned an illegal activity in response to the Supreme Court's decision. The spokesman would not say what police believed the activity was.
The March 20, 1995, subway attack -- in which suspected cult members released sarin gas on several subway lines -- killed 12 people and seriously injured 54. About 5,500 others suffered lesser injuries.
The attack was the most serious in Japan since the end of World War II.
