Japan's Supreme Court affirmed today the death sentences for two men who helped carry out the 1995 sarin nerve agent attack on the Tokyo subway system that left 12 dead, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, July 15).
Toru Toyoda, 41, and Kenichi Hirose, 45, had filed an appeal of the death sentences handed down in 2000 by the Tokyo District Court and upheld four years later by the Tokyo High Court. They are allowed to object to today's decision on technical grounds, but that is unlikely to prevent their execution, Kyodo reported.
Should the decision hold, a total of eight former members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult would be awaiting execution for the sarin attack and other crimes. Among them are cult founder Shoko Asahara.
Death penalties have been unsuccessfully appealed by four of the five former Aum members who were found guilty of physically releasing the sarin gas that left thousands sickened. Toyoda and Hirose appear to be among that group.
Toyoda has also been convicted of conspiring with the cult to use a bomb against then-Tokyo Governor Yukio Aoshima in 1995. A metropolitan government official suffered serious injuries when the parcel bomb detonated (Kyodo News/Breitbart.com, Nov. 6).