Supreme Court upholds gallows for Aum pair in nerve gas attack

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentences for two Aum Shinrikyo cultists convicted for their role in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and left thousands injured.

Fat chance: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentences of Aum Shinrikyo members Toru Toyoda (left) and Kenichi Hirose for their role in the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas killings. KYODO PHOTO

The top court's Second Petty Bench turned down appeals from Toru Toyoda, 41, and Kenichi Hirose, 45, against death sentences upheld in 2004 by the Tokyo High Court.

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, Toyoda and Hirose can still file an objection with the highest court against its decision. But it is limited to technicalities, including errors in the wording.

Friday's decision is expected to eventually become final as the top court has rarely accepted such an objection.

This would bring the Aum ranks on death row to eight for their involvement in the cult's heinous crimes, including the guru, Shoko Asahara, 54, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto. Death penalties would stand for four of the five Aum figures convicted of actually dispersing the sarin in the subway system.

The only exception is Aum physician Ikuo Hayashi, 62, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty for him because he surrendered to police investigators.

In Friday's decision, Justice Yukio Takeuchi, who presided over the appeal, said the sarin attack constituted "organized and premeditated acts of indiscriminate mass murder" and the crime was "extremely cruel and inhumane."

Even though the two men committed the crime on the instructions of higher cult members, that doesn't mitigate their responsibility, the justice said.

Toyoda and Hirose, in conspiracy with Asahara and other top cultists, disbursed sarin on the Hibiya and Marunouchi subway lines on March 20, 1995, killing 12 passengers and subway employees, court rulings have established.

Toyoda was also found guilty of conspiring with other cultists to mail in May 1995 a parcel bomb to then Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima. The bomb seriously wounded a metro government official.