TOKYO -- Prosecutors demanded the death penalty Wednesday for a former leader of the doomsday cult that carried out a nerve gas attack in Tokyo's subways that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
Tomomitsu Niimi, former "home affairs minister" of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, is being tried in for the murders of 26 people in seven separate attacks, including the 1995 subway attack and the slaying of a lawyer and his family.
Prosecutors called for death, Tokyo District Court spokeswoman Mizuka Oku said.
Niimi gained notoriety at the start of his trial in 1996 by refusing to enter pleas and pledging eternal loyalty to Aum guru Shoko Asahara. Niimi is accused of helping to organize the 1989 strangulation of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, one of the first people to raise questions about the cult's activities, along with his wife and son.
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is being tried separately for allegedly masterminding the subway gas attack and other killings. Several former cult leaders have been sentenced to death in those cases.
The cult, which advocated overthrowing the Japanese government by sowing chaos, was declared bankrupt in March 1996 but has regrouped under a new name, Aleph. It is under surveillance by Japan's Public Safety Agency, which has warned that the group is still a threat.