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Moscow court arrest suspect in case over setting up cell of doomsday cult

The decision holds effect through to June 12, 2018

MOSCOW, May 4. /TASS/. Moscow City’s Basmanny district court on Thursday authorized arrest of Mikhail Ustyantsev, who is suspected of setting up a cell of followers of Aum Shinrikyo cult in Moscow and St Petersburg in 2011, Yunona Tsaryova, the press secretary of the court told TASS on Thursday.

The court authorized custody as a pretrial measure for Ustyantsev. The decision holds effect through to June 12, 2018.

The investigators suspect the man of setting up a group of unidentified followers of Aum Shinrikyo in Moscow and St Petersburg "not later than in 2011". The activities of the group involved violence against people.

Russia’s Federal Security Service [FSB] placed the international religious association Aum Shinrikyo on the list of terrorist organizations. Its decision followed the September 20, 2016, ruling of Russia’s Supreme Court and took legal effect on October 25, 2016.

Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Shoko Asahara of Japan in 1987 and sprang into global focus in 1995 when its adepts sprayed the nerve agent Sarin in the Tokyo metro. The attack claimed the lives of thirteen people.