A Japanese court has sentenced a former senior member of the Aum Shinri Kyo doomsday cult to death for his role in making the poison used in a 1995 gas attack on Tokyo's subway that killed 12 people.
The ruling by the Tokyo District Court on Friday came less than a month before it hands down a decision against cult guru Shoko Asahara, who stands accused of masterminding the sarin nerve gas attack, which also made over 5,000 people ill.
A court spokesman confirmed the death sentence on 39-year-old Masami Tsuchiya.
Tsuchiya was accused of murder and attempted murder for the Tokyo subway incident as well as a gas attack in a residential area in Matsumoto in central Japan in June 1994 that killed seven and hurt 144, Kyodo news agency said.
Tsuchiya, a chemist, was charged in five other cases, including three incidents in which VX nerve gas was used to kill or harm people, Kyodo said.
He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Tsuchiya is the 11th Aum member to be sentenced to death. The other 10 have filed appeals. Four of them have filed a second appeal after their death sentences were upheld by high courts.
Prosecutors have also demanded the death penalty against Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto. The Tokyo District Court will hand down a ruling on February 27.
The doomsday cult, which Asahara set up in 1987, at one point attracted a 15,000-strong following in Japan. It preached that the world was coming to an end and that the cult must arm itself to prepare for calamities.
Aum has since changed its name to Aleph -- the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet -- and insists it is now a benign religious group, but the Japanese authorities say it is still a threat and keep it under strict surveillance.