Tokyo, Japan - Two daughters of a former cult leader sentenced to death for masterminding a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway are suing the government and a court-appointed psychiatrist after a court rejected his appeal, a lawyer said Saturday.
Last month, the Tokyo High Court threw out the appeal by former Aum Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara, saying his lawyers missed the deadline to file the necessary papers and that Asahara was mentally fit to stand trial.
Takeshi Matsui, a lawyer for Asahara, said he filed the lawsuit Tuesday against the government and psychiatrist Akira Nishiyama with the Tokyo District Court, but declined to provide any other details. Asahara's daughters' names were not disclosed.
Kyodo News agency said the plaintiffs are seeking 50 million yen in compensation.
The daughters accused the high court of "suddenly" rejecting the appeal a day before the lawyers were to present Asahara's case in order to block their submission, Kyodo said. They also accused the psychiatrist of having already decided that Asahara was fit for trial before interviewing him, it said.
Asahara, born Chizuo Matsumoto, was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to hang for the subway attack, in which his followers released deadly sarin gas on Tokyo subways during the morning rush hour.
The attack killed 12 people and injured thousands. Asahara was also convicted of plotting more than a dozen other crimes, including a 1994 gas attack in central Japan that killed seven, and the kidnapping and murder of an anti-cult lawyer and his family.
Asahara's lawyers say he suffers from pathological mental stress caused by confinement and is unfit for trial.
The nearly blind former guru, who once commanded a powerful group of some 40,000 members, mumbled incoherently during his eight-year trial, interrupting sessions with bizarre outbursts in English. He was also observed talking to himself and wetting his pants, his lawyers have said.
In February, psychiatrist Nishiyama submitted a report to the high court saying Asahara may be feigning mental illness and "had not lost the ability to stand trial."
All seven psychiatrists who examined Asahara for the defense disputed Nishiyama's conclusion.
About a dozen other cult members have been sentenced to death, but none has been executed. Three members wanted in the subway gassing are still at large.