=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. AUM guru may undergo mental tests

=== Falun Gong
2. falungong leader savages ''wicked'' Chinese leadership
3. China's crackdown on falungong sect rooted in fear and ignorance: members
4. China Jails 13 More Falun Gong Activists

=== Unification Church
5. Ministers upset by Moon visit
6. Rev. Moon's event raises local hackles
7. In Oakland, Moon Stresses Family
8. Rev. Moon delivers message in Oakland
9. The Reverend Moon's Comeback

=== Islam
10. 2 Bamyan Buddhas completely destroyed, reports AIP
11. Taliban vows to keep thumbing nose at the world
12. Taliban close BBC Kabul office
13. The anti-Buddhist fury in Afghanistan

=== Catholicism
14. Ranking Congressmen Support Suspect Religious Group

=== Mormonism
15. Skinhead Church
16. 'It Isn't A Sunday Religion. It's A Lifetime Change.'

=== Hate Groups
17. FindLaw Forum: Court should have heard KKK case
18. Haider the Rightist Is Firing Up Vienna's Election With Slurs

=== Other News
19. Novato 'Diploma Mill' Shut Down by State
20. Leader Of Religious Group, Son Charged With Molestation
21. Man charged with DUI and fired after drinking kava sues employer
22. Elementary may be closed due to polygamists withdrawal
23. 'Fairy' pictures fetch £6,000

=== Faith-Based Initiatives

24. Christian leaders pan Bush's faith plan
25. Cult fear hits Bush plan to fund by faith
26. Poll: Americans approve of Bush
27. Delay on Faith-Aid Plan Puts Time on Bush's Side
28. Senate To Introduce Religion Plan

=== Human Rights Violations

29. Amnesty International Condemns Sentencing of 14-year-old Boy to Life Imprisonment Without Possibility of Parole

=== Noted
30. Hearing From Dearly Departed Proves a Hit on Sci-Fi Channel

=== Trends
31. Claim of 'Post-Denominational Era' Defied
32. It's chic to be a Protestant in France


=== Aum Shinrikyo

1. AUM guru may undergo mental tests
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), Mar. 15, 2001
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Shoko Asahara, the founder of the doomsday cult AUM Shinrikyo could escape punishment for masterminding the cult's crimes on the grounds that he is mentally unstable, the Mainichi has learned.
(...)

His defense lawyers have asked that the guru undergo psychiatric tests and are expected to argue that Asahara has suffered a mental disorder due to his long-term detention.

If Asahara is proven to be mentally incapacitated, he will, under the Code of Criminal Procedure, escape punishment for the 13 charges, including murder. But if he is found to have feigned mental illness, his defense will suffer a body blow. ''It can save or finish (Asahara),'' a member of the defense team admitted.

Asahara's trial will be halted for about six months if the court grants the lawyers' request, made nearly four years after the start of Asahara's trial.

The lawyers have been criticized for apparently prolonging the trial after the courts found Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, responsible for the AUM attacks during the trials of other cult members.

The guru has blamed his disciples for the offenses.

Coinciding with the time that his trusted disciples were in turn pointing the finger at their guru during their respective trials, from around the autumn of 1996, Asahara increasingly began to act erratically in the court.

His lawyers said they had been unable to fully communicate with him from around April 1997 and his mental state had reached the point where he should undergo psychiatric testing.
(...)

Makoto Oda, a professor at International University of Health and Welfare in Tochigi Prefecture who examined an accused AUM member, believes Asahara should undergo the tests.

''I've heard a rumor that Matsumoto once asked his lawyers if it is possible to escape prosecution by feigning a mental disorder. So, if the mental examination can clear things up, it must be done,'' Oda said.
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