JAPAN: TOP COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE ON EX-AUM FOLLOWER

the Japanese Supreme Court upheld the death sentence given to a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo religious cult for the 1989 murders of an anti-AUM lawyer, his wife and their son. Kiyohide Hayakawa, 60, can still file an objection with the highest court but it would be limited to technicalities. Justice Ryoji Nakagawa upheld the Tokyo District Court’s death sentence in 2000 and the Tokyo High Court’s decision in 2004.