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Shoko Asahara, guru of the doomsday Aum Shinrikyo cult responsible for the sarin gas attack, has been hanged.
The former leader of the doomsday cult that carried out a fatal gas attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995 was executed on Friday .
Shoko Asahara, who masterminded the attack in which 13 people died and more than 6,000 others fell ill, was hanged at a detention centre.
Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, confirmed Asahara's execution.
The justice ministry later confirmed that six other senior cult members were executed on the same day.
"I think it's right that he was executed," said Shizue Takahashi, whose husband, a subway worker, died after removing one of the sarin packages.
"My husband's parents and my parents are already dead," she added. "I think they would find it regrettable that they could not have heard the news of this execution."
Kiyoe Iwata, whose daughter died in the attack, said the news had given her peace of mind. "I have always been wondering why it had to be my daughter and why she had to be killed," she told public broadcaster NHK. "Now I can visit her grave and tell her this news."
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