TOKYO - A former doomsday cult leader was sentenced to death Wednesday for his involvement in numerous murders, including the nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
Tomomitsu Niimi, former "Home Affairs Minister" of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was found guilty in Tokyo District Court of murdering 26 people in seven separate attacks, including the 1995 subway gassing and the slaying of a lawyer and his family.
Court official Hideyuki Ito said Niimi has decided to appeal the case. It was unclear when the next proceedings begin.
Niimi was given the death sentence by a three-judge panel presided over by head judge Yujiro Nakatani, Ito said.
"The inhumane crimes go against humanity and (Niimi's) responsibility is extremely grave," Nakatani said, according to Kyodo News agency and public broadcaster NHK television.
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.
He has since reportedly admitted to all charges brought against him except involvement in the subway attack. But he claimed he was following Asahara's orders and shouldn't be subject to the death penalty.
During his final statement, he reportedly said: "The death-penalty system creates new misfortunes. Please create a society where the death penalty is not needed."
Niimi is accused of helping organize the 1989 strangulation of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto — one of the first to question the cult's activities — and the lawyer's wife and son.
Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, has been on trial since April 1996 and is indicted for allegedly directing the Tokyo subway assault, as well as other killings.
So far, prosecutors have demanded death sentences for 11 cult members. With Wednesday's indictment, a total of nine have been sentenced to die, but some of those sentences are on appeal, and none has yet been carried out.
Although authorities do not disclose what crimes are punishable by death, the murder of several people is usually believed to warrant the punishment.
The charismatic Asahara had predicted an apocalypse that only cult members would survive. Local media have reported that the cult was developing chemical, biological and conventional weapons in an apparent attempt to attack population centers and overthrow the government.
The cult was declared bankrupt in March 1996, but later regrouped under the name Aleph. It is under surveillance by Japan's Public Safety Agency, which has warned that the group remains a threat.