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Japan's top court upholds death sentence of cult member, ending AUM trials

2011-11-22 Source:Xinhuanet

TOKYO, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Japan's top court on Monday rejected a death sentence appeal from a leading member of the AUM Shinrikyo cult that was responsible for a series of poisonous gas attacks which killed more than 20 people in the 1990s.

The Supreme Court verdict on Seiichi Endo, 51, marked the end of the AUM trials, which lasted for 16 years. He is the 13th member of the cult to receive a death penalty verdict and one of 180 cult members indicted for the crimes.

Endo was sentenced to death for producing sarin gas used in the deadly 1995 attack on Tokyo subways and for his role in a 1994 sarin attack by the cult in Matsumoto City in central Japan.

He was originally given the death penalty by the Tokyo District Court in October 2002, and the Tokyo High Court upheld the lower court ruling in May 2007.

"Every one of his criminal acts was meant to protect the cult, and its cruel and inhuman acts were unparalleled," said Presiding Justice Seishi Kanetsuki of the Supreme Court's No. 1 Petty Bench in the ruling on Monday.

"The defendant's responsibility for being involved in the killings of a total of 19 people by misusing his scientific knowledge was very heavy, and the death sentence therefore cannot be avoided," he said.

The court learned that Endo served as the health and welfare minister in the cult that was modeled on a mini-government and his responsibilities included the study of sarin, VX gas, anthrax and other noxious gases, poisons and harmful chemicals.

But his defense lawyers claimed that he was not responsible for planning or carrying out the attacks and had in fact been brainwashed by cult leader Shoko Asahara, 56, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, who was sentenced to death for the murder of 27 people and widely regarded as the mastermind behind the doomsday cult's activities and killing sprees.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected claims of brainwashing and upheld Endo's death sentence. Endo joins 13 other cult members, including Asahara, currently on death row and has 10 days to file an appeal against the court's decision, as per judicial protocol, although the appeal will likely have zero bearing on his sentence.

The AUM Shinrikyo cult launched sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995, killing 13 people and leaving thousands of others ill. The group was also held responsible for an earlier sarin attack on June 27, 1994, in a parking lot near housing for judges in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight people.

AUM Shinrikyo renamed itself Aleph in January 2000 and in 2007 a senior AUM disciple and his followers left Aleph to launch a splinter group called Hikari no Wa (Circle of Rainbow Light).

Original text from: http:/ews.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-11/21/c_131260456.htm

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