Last fugitive in Tokyo subway gas attack arrested

Asahi Shimbun / AFP/Getty Images

FILE PHOTO: On March 20, 1995, subway passengers waited to receive medical attention after inhaling nerve gas.

By msnbc.com staff

The last fugitive of Japan?s Aum Shinrikyo cult ? notorious for carrying out the deadly 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway ? was arrested Friday, Kyodo News reported.

The man has admitted to police that he is Katsuya Takahashi, 54; authorities are working to confirm his identity, according to Kyodo news. This follows on the arrest earlier this month of Naoko Kikuchi, another suspect in the sarin gas attack that left 13 dead, 54 wounded and thousands with temporary vision problems. In January, Makoto Hirate, another former member, turned himself in to police.

Suspect in 1995 Tokyo gas attack arrested in Japan

Takahashi was detained in Tokyo?s Ota Ward after 17 years as a fugitive. He was the last of nearly 200 members of the cult ? whose name meant ?Supreme Truth? ? who were convicted in the subway gas plot. Sarin gas is a chemical warfare agent that is classified as a nerve agent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ?

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AP / Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department via Kyodo News

Video footage of a surveillance camera released by Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department shows Katsuya Takahashi, a former member of Aum Shinrikyo cult, at a bank near Tokyo.

The Aum cult was founded in 1984 by leader Shoko Asahara on a doomsday principle that World War III would be instigated by the United States. Asahara predicted the world would come to an end in 1997. ?

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