Yoshihiro Inoue

The high court determined that Inoue's role as an "overall coordinator" of the 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system was as important as of those who actually released the deadly gas.

The ruling brought the number of senior Aum members sentenced to death to 13, including cult founder Shoko Asahara. Five other followers have received sentences of life in prison.

Inoue's defense team immediately appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Of the 13 crimes for which members of the cult have been convicted, Inoue, 34, was accused of being involved in 10 of them, including four cases in which people were murdered.

The four comprise the March 20, 1995, sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway system, the February 1995 abduction that led to the death of a Tokyo notary public, the lynching of cultist Kotaro Ochida in January 1994 and the VX gassing of Tadahito Hamaguchi, whom the cult believed was a spy from the Public Security Investigation Agency, on Dec. 12, 1994.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 5, 2004
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