An Aum Shinrikyo figure was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking part in the November 1989 murders of an anti-Aum lawyer and his family and the deadly June 1994 nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
The Tokyo District Court found Satoru Hashimoto, 32, guilty of conspiring with five other cultists to murder Yokohama lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, the attorney's wife, Satoko, and their 1-year-old son, Tatsuhiko.
Hashimoto, who had been a bodyguard for Aum guru Shoko Asahara, was also convicted of taking part in the Matsumoto sarin attack, which killed seven and injured more than 270 local residents, and in the construction of a sarin plant in Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture.