The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered eight former Aum Shinrikyo members to pay 59.37 million yen in damages to the family of Kiyoshi Kariya, a Tokyo notary public clerk who was killed in February 1995.

Sato Kariya, the widow, and her three children filed the damages suit in 1995, demanding 128.28 million yen from the Aum members, including senior cultists Eriko Iida and Yoshihiro Inoue.

Members of Aum have been convicted in the abduction and slaying of Kariya, 68.

The court also determined that Aum's publicly appointed liquidator owes 44.02 million yen to Kariya's younger sister, Aiko Nishina, who claimed she was forced to donate 60 million yen to the cult between 1994 and early 1995.

The court held the eight responsible for Kariya's death and concluded that the cult illegally forced Nishina to donate the money.

During the cult members' criminal trials, prosecutors said Kariya was abducted in a bid to make him hand over his sister, who was a cult member at the time. He was killed by an overdose of an anesthetic being used as a truth serum.

Claiming the cult planned the murder, the widow and children originally filed the compensation suit against the cult, its founder and guru, Shoko Asahara, and 11 former cultists.

In 1996, the Tokyo court ordered Asahara and Noboru Nakamura to pay 163 million yen in damages to Kariya's widow and children. The cult's liquidator and the two former cult members have already reached settlements with the plaintiffs.