TOKYO, Japan - The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling sentencing former AUM Shinrikyo cult member Koichi Kitamura to life imprisonment for murder for his role as a driver of a getaway vehicle in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Presiding Judge Tetsuya Yoshimoto said Kitamura, 33, was involved in the criminal act itself as he was aware of the plan in advance and clearly realized killing power of sarin gas.
''The accused played a role as a driver coldly and faithfully in an atrocious and inhumane crime,'' Yoshimoto said, adding life imprisonment is not too harsh a sentence despite the fact Kitamura did not play a leading role in the crime.
Fourteen AUM members have been indicted in charges of murder and attempted murder for allegedly killing 12 people and seriously injuring 14 by releasing sarin gas on the Tokyo subway in March 1995.
Kitamura is the second among them to receive a verdict from a high court, following Kiyotaka Tonozaki, who has also been sentenced to life imprisonment for serving as a driver in the criminal act.