JAPAN. TOKYO HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE IN 1995 SUBWAY GASSING

July 13, 2007: a Japanese high court upheld the death sentence of a former medical doctor who was a senior leader of a cult that carried out a fatal nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
The Tokyo High Court backed a lower court's October 2003 conviction of Tomomasa Nakagawa for helping to make the deadly sarin nerve gas used in the subway attack that killed 12 people, and in an earlier attack that killed seven people, said a court spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity citing court protocol. Nakagawa was also found guilty of participating in other cult murders. The spokeswoman said she had no other details from the ruling. More than a dozen death sentences have been handed out to members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, but none have been executed. Former Aum guru Shoko Asahara is on death row for 27 killings, including 12 in the subway attack. (Sources: International Herald Tribune, 13/07/2007)