21 February 2006 :

Shoko Asahara, the former leader of the cult responsible for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway moved a step closer to the gallows when a psychiatrist ruled that he was mentally fit to continue his appeal against the death penalty. Lawyers for the former leader of Aum Shinrikyo had argued that the case should be suspended because the defendant's inability to speak and a suspected brain disorder made him unfit to stand trial. Asahara, 50, was sentenced to hang in 2004 for masterminding the subway attack in which 12 people died.