TOKYO - The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a death sentence for a former senior AUM Shinrikyo member who murdered an anti-AUM lawyer, his wife and infant son and also a follow AUM member both in 1989.
Presiding Judge Yoshimasa Kawabe affirmed the Tokyo District Court's 1998 death sentence against Kazuaki Okazaki, 41, finding him guilty of killing Yokohama lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, then 33, his wife Satoko, then 29, and their 1-year-old son Tatsuhiko. Sakamoto was at the time leader of a group of lawyers representing families whose relatives joined the cult. (Kyodo News)