On December 15, prosecutors urged the Tokyo District...

On December 15, prosecutors urged the Tokyo District Court to pass the death sentence on Satoru Hashimoto, 32, the "home affairs minister" of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, who is charged with murdering a lawyer and his family and with involvement in the sarin gas incident in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. Defense attorneys will give their final addresses on February 16, 2000 and the court will rule on the case next summer, sources said. Hashimoto became the second member of the cult for whom the death penalty is being sought for the alleged murder in November 1989 of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his wife and son, following Kazuaki Okazaki, 39, a former executive of the cult, on whom the death sentence has been passed. Okazaki is appealing to a higher court against the decision. Hashimoto also became the sixth cult member to face a possible death sentence for the series of crimes involving Aum Supreme Truth.