THE JAPAN TIMES, THE MAINICHI (Japan)
TOKYO - Katsuya Takahashi, the last fugitive from the Aum Shirinkyo cult that launched a sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, was arrested in the capital on Friday morning. The 54-year-old had been on the run for the past 17 years, until someone spotted him in a manga café and called the police.
Takahashi's capture came after the June 3 arrest of Naoko Kikuchi, also suspected in the attack that killed 13 and sickened 6,000 others, the Japan Times reports. Between 2001 and 2006, the two were living together in Kawasaki, on the outskirts of Tokyo, pretending to be a couple. When he learned of Kikuchi's arrest, Takahashi fled the construction company dormitory where he had been living under a false name.
The Mainichi reports that police authorities organized a large manhunt to find Takashi after Kikuchi spilled the beans on where he was living, and what false name he was using. They will now try to determine what role he played in the 1995 attack and how he managed to elude capture without organizational support. According to the Mainichi, Takashi is suspected of driving fellow cultist Toru Toyota to a subway station to carry out one of the sarin attacks. Toyota is on death row, along with cult founder Chizuo Matsumoto and 11 others convicted of planning the gas attack and for plotting other crimes.
Photo- Aum members on a wanted poster in a police station (松岡明芳)
