The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced a former member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult to life imprisonment for his involvement in the June 1994 lethal sarin nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, and three other cult-linked crimes.
Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Noboru Nakamura, 34, who served as the cult's self-styled deputy home affairs minister. Seven people died in the Matsumoto gassing.
Cult followers killed 12 and injured more than 5,000 in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Nakamura was also implicated in the June 1994 murder of Aum follower Toshio Tomita, and the abduction and killing of public notary Kiyoshi Kariya in February 1995, according to Wednesday's ruling.
He also helped build a sarin plant in Kamikuishikimura, Yamanashi Prefecture, between November 1993 and December 1994, the ruling said.
"Although he bears grave criminal responsibility, his role in the crimes--with the exception of the Kariya case--was a subordinate one," Judge Toshio Nagai said, explaining why he did not impose the death penalty. "Therefore, it is inappropriate to impose a punishment that outweighs the seriousness of his actions."
Nakamura is the second former Aum member to be sentenced to life imprisonment in the face of prosecution demands for the death penalty. The first was 31-year-old Yoshihiro Inoue, who had been a leading member of the cult.
Nakamura was the sixth Aum member to be handed a life sentence by the district court in connection with crimes committed by the cult.
The court focused on Nakamura's role in the Matsumoto case, the most serious of the four crimes for which he was convicted.
During his trial, Nakamura denied he intended to kill, claiming he did not realize the cult was producing sarin and that he was not aware that the gas was deadly.
While the court agreed that Nakamura had been unaware that the substance sprayed in Matsumoto was sarin, and that prosecuters failed to prove he intended to commit murder, it found that he had a subconscious desire to kill.
On Nakamura's role as a lookout in the Matsumoto sarin attack, the ruling said, "Although he did not have to kill anyone who happened to get in the way of the attack, he played a role in ensuring that the crime was committed as planned."