オウムのテロ組織指定解除　松本元死刑囚の刑執行理由か―米

　【ワシントン時事】米国務省は２０日、１９９５年の地下鉄サリン事件などを起こしたオウム真理教について、「外国テロ組織（ＦＴＯ）」の指定を解除したと発表した。５年ごとの指定見直しの一環で、オウム真理教の元代表松本智津夫（麻原彰晃）元死刑囚の死刑が２０１８年に執行されたことを受け、解除を決めた可能性がある。
　国務省は指定解除の理由を「既にテロ行為、テロ活動に関与しておらず、そうした能力や意図も持っていない」と説明。一方、解除が過去のテロ行為や被害者に与えた苦痛などを見過ごすものではないと強調した。（2022/05/21-08:51）

The U.S. State Department said Friday that it has removed five groups, including Japan's now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
   Aum Shinrikyo, which committed many serious crimes including the 1995 deadly sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system, was dropped from the list possibly because former Aum Shinrikyo leader Chizuo Matsumoto, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara, was executed in 2018.
   The department reviews the list every five years. Aum Shinrikyo was added to the list in 1997.
   "The five organizations are no longer engaged in terrorism or terrorist activity and do not retain the capability and intent to do so," the department said.
   Still, the department said, "These revocations do not seek to overlook or excuse the terrorist acts each of these groups previously engaged in or the harm the organizations caused its victims."