Tokyo, Japan - A Tokyo court on Friday upheld the death sentence for a top member of the doomsday cult charged with a nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway trains in 1995 that killed 12, sickened thousands and shattered Japan's myth of public safety.
The Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by Masami Tsuchiya, a top chemist in the cult, against a lower court ruling in January 2004 sentencing him to hang.
The courts said Tsuchiya had played a key role in producing sarin nerve gas and other toxic chemicals used in crimes committed by the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult, including the 1995 Tokyo subway attack.
"The Aum-related crimes, such as the sarin gas attack, could not have taken place without him, and he was at the center of the crimes," Kyodo news agency quoted presiding judge Yu Shiraki as saying in upholding the lower court ruling.
"The crimes were vicious and cruel, and there is no choice but to give him the death penalty in light of the feelings of the victims and the impact that they had on society."
It was not immediately clear whether the 41-year-old Tsuchiya would appeal Friday's ruling.
The other cult members condemned to death include its guru, Shoko Asahara. None have been hanged yet.
Asahara, the founder and former leader of Aum, was found guilty of responsibility for the gas attack and sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court in February 2004.
Asahara's defense counsel filed a special appeal in June at the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the Tokyo High Court's rejection of his appeal against the death sentence.
Asahara set up the cult in 1987, mixing Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings and attracting at its peak at least 10,000 members in Japan and overseas, including graduates of some of the nation's elite universities.
The pudgy, nearly blind guru had predicted that the United States would attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland.
Aum Shinri Kyo, which admitted involvement in the gassing, later changed its name to Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its leaders insist that the cult is now benign, but Japanese authorities still keep its membership of more than 1,000 under surveillance.
The gas attack and images of bodies lying across platforms and soldiers in gas masks sealing off Tokyo subway stations, stunned the Japanese public and shattered the country's self-image as a haven of public safety.