JAPAN: DEATH SENTENCE FINALISED FOR EX-AUM SHINRIKYO MEMBER

Masato Yokoyama, one of the perpetrators of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack that killed 12 people and injured dozens, carried out by the buddhist sect Aum Shinrikyo, had his death sentence finalised when the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. Presiding Judge Ryoji Nakagawa rejected an objection raised about the July 20 upholding of Yokoyama’s sentence by the same court. Yokoyama, who was first sentenced to death in 1999, has admitted to carrying two packets of sarin on to a packed subway train, but also led Aum Shinrikyo’s arms-producing team and was involved in illicitly producing an automatic gun for the sect. His lawyers had attempted to avoid the death penalty on the grounds that nobody actually died in the Shibuya train car in which Yokoyama released the sarin packets.