AUM Lawyers Keep Pounding

File under: Gurus Doin' Time

Scheduled to hang, possibly much sooner than we know, subway-gassing AUM guru and terrorist Shoko Asahara is still acting crazy in his bid to avoid the chute. Meanwhile, his lawyers are still banging on the court's doors looking for another appeal:

But Takeshi Matsui, who heads the defense team, said Asahara suffers from "prison psychosis," which is manifested in delusions, hallucinations, incoherent speech and disorganized behavior. Matsui's motion demands Asahara be treated and that they be allowed to appeal once he is stable enough to assist his defense.

"I have heard these kind of problems can be treated in a matter of months," Matsui said.

No wonder Asahara is going to die. His lawyers are rank amateurs and perhaps should have spent a bit more time researching "prison psychosis":

Ganser syndrome is a rare psychiatric disorder known as a factitious disorder. It is characterised by the individual mimicking behaviour they think is typical of a psychosis; usually by providing nonsensical or wrong answers to questions, and doing things incorrectly. It is also sometimes called nonsense syndrome, balderdash syndrome, syndrome of approximate answers, pseudodementia or prison psychosis. This last name, prison psychosis, is sometimes used because the syndrome occurs most frequently in prison inmates, where it may represent an attempt to gain leniency from prison or court officials.

Seeing as Asahara is thought of as the most evil person in all of Japan, we're laying odds that his "treatment" is going to be the cure of everything that ails him, including his life.