TOKYO, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- A former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo cult, responsible for two deadly gas attacks in Japan, was sentenced to death Friday in Tokyo.
Masami Tsuchiya received the penalty for playing a key role in making sarin and other poisons used in crimes allegedly committed by the cult, including the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack, Kyodo reported.
The March 20, 1995 subway gassing in Tokyo killed 12 people and injured more than 5,000 others. A June 27, 1994 attack in Matsumoto killed seven and injured 144.
Of the 189 people indicted for AUM-related crimes, Tsuchiya, 39, a trained chemist, was the second-to-last defendant to receive a ruling in a first trial.
Tsuchiya argued the sarin he made was not the sarin used in the subway attack.
He was enrolled in a doctorate program in chemistry at Tsukuba University when he became a live-in follower of the cult.
Tsuchiya's trial lasted more than eight years, as he dismissed his lawyers twice during the trial.
A ruling on AUM founder Shoko Asahara is scheduled for Feb. 27.
