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Cult leader loses last appeal
15/09/2006 16:46 - (SA)
Tokyo - The death sentence handed to the cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto, mastermind of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, was finalised on Friday, as the Supreme Court rejected a special appeal filed by his defence team.
Matsumoto, 51, founder and leader of Aum Shinrikyo cult, received a death sentence in February 2004 from a lower court.
He was found guilty on 13 charges that resulted in the death of 27 people.
His defence team had missed the deadline on August 2005 to submit to the Tokyo High Court reasons for an appeal against the lower court's sentence.
Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara, was found guilty of masterminding the Tokyo sarin gas attack which killed 12 and wounded nearly 6 000 people, as well as a similar attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994 that killed seven people and injured 660 others.
The court also found him guilty of murdering attorney Tsutsumi Sakamoto, who filed complaints against the cult, his wife and their one-year-old son in November 1989.
Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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