AUM guru ordered to pay damages for lethal gassing.

AUM Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara was ordered by a Tokyo court Wednesday to pay 465 million yen to families of victims of the doomsday cult's 1994 deadly gassing of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.

Presiding Judge Kazuo Ichinomiya of the Tokyo District Court awarded the payout to the families of four of the seven people who died in the gas attack apparently aimed at the judges in a court case in which AUM was involved at the time.

"I can imagine the distress of victims whose lives were taken away without knowing how or why," Ichinomiya said before ordering the damages be paid.

The judge recognized Asahara as being the mastermind behind the hideous …