Tokyo, Japan - Japan's Supreme Court is likely to soon finalise the death penalty for the former leader of a Japanese doomsday cult who masterminded a fatal gas attack on Tokyo subways 10 years ago, his lawyers said on Monday.
The defence team for Shoko Asahara had filed a special appeal to the court in May after the Tokyo High Court rejected appeals that the former guru was mentally unfit to stand trial and that the case should be suspended.
But the lawyers said that following recent media reports regarding the case, the Supreme Court was likely to decide in the coming days to throw out their appeal, paving the way for Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, to be hanged.
Asahara, 51, was found guilty of responsibility for the gas attack that killed 12 and made thousands ill, and sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court in February 2004.
Kyodo news agency, quoting unnamed legal sources, said the decision was unlikely to be prolonged, while public broadcaster NHK carried a similar report.
Asahara's lawyers reiterated that the former leader of Aum Shinri Kyo, or Supreme Truth Sect, was incompetent and that the case should be suspended so that Asahara can receive medical treatment for his mental condition.
"If the Supreme Court were to reject the special appeal, it would be a wrong judgement that would go down in history for intentionally ignoring the facts," the lawyers said in a statement.
The lawyers said their client has been unable to speak or to communicate with them, rejecting claims that he objected to a high court ruling handed down in March.
The Yomiuri newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, reported on Sunday that Asahara had said: "I'm innocent, I was trapped," after the Tokyo High Court's rejection of his lawyers' appeal, a sign he is mentally fit.
"He does not respond at all to the lawyers and only says: 'un, un' to himself ... It's impossible for him to say: 'I'm innocent,'" his lawyers said.
The gas attack on Tokyo rush-hour trains on March 20, 1995, injured about 5,500 people, some permanently, when members of the cult released sarin, first developed by Nazi Germany.
The gassing, with its images of bodies lying across platforms and soldiers in gas masks sealing off Tokyo subway stations, stunned the Japanese public and shattered the country's self-image as a haven of public safety.
Asahara was also found guilty of other charges including a series of crimes that killed 15 people.
Asahara set up the cult in 1987, mixing Buddhist and Hindu meditation with apocalyptic teachings and attracting, at its peak, at least 10,000 members in Japan and overseas, including graduates of some of the nation's elite universities.
The nearly blind guru had predicted that the United States would attack Japan and turn it into a nuclear wasteland.
Aum Shinri Kyo, which admitted involvement in the gassing, later changed its name to Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its leaders insist the cult is now benign, but Japanese authorities still keep its membership of more than 1,000 under surveillance.