Chizuo Matsumoto, the former leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, was executed on Friday, NHK reported. Matsumoto, also known under the alias Shoko Asahara, is reportedly the first of 13 individuals scheduled to be executed for their roles in orchestrating the 1995 sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway.

In 1995, several members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released deadly sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000. Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese doomsday religious movement, founded in 1987, is recognized as a terrorist group by a number of states, including Russia, EU countries, the United States, Canada and Kazakhstan.

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