Japan: Nerve gas attack cult leader 'fit for trial'

Psychiatrists have concluded a former cult leader sentenced to die for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo underground rail system is mentally fit to stand trial if his appeal goes ahead, a court official said today.

Shoko Asahara, the former guru of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to hang in the gas assault and other attacks that killed a total of 27 people and injured thousands of others.