A Japanese high court reduced a prison sentence imposed on a former senior member of the Aum Supreme Truth sect by three years, saying he had shown deep remorse for his crimes.
The Tokyo High Court cut the 18-year sentence previously handed to Masahiro Tominaga, 33, by the Tokyo District Court in 1999, for crimes including the attempted murder of the governor of Tokyo with a parcel bomb in 1995.
"His criminal responsibility is grave, but he has apologized to victims and shown deep remorse by paying compensation to them," presiding Judge Shogo Takahashi told the court Friday.
Tominaga, a doctor who trained at Japan's elite Tokyo University, had pleaded not guilty at his trial, saying he was under the control of sect leader Shoko Asahara.
The doctor was one of the senior advisors in the cult known as the "emperor's secretariat."
Tominaga was also convicted of the attempted murder of an anti-sect lawyer and attempted cyanide gas attack at Shinjuku Station, Japan's biggest train station.
Last month, the Tokyo district court sentenced to death Tomomitsu Niimi, 38, a former officer of the doomsday cult for his role in a deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway lines and other murders.
He was the eighth Aum follower to be sentenced to hang for his crimes, while dozens of others, including Asahara, are still on trial.