The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty for one-time senior Aum Shinrikyo figure Kazuaki Okazaki, 41, for his role in the 1989 murders of a Yokohama lawyer, the lawyer's family and a cultist who tried to defect.
In rejecting the former cultist's appeal, the court said the defendant was among those who murdered anti-Aum lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, 33, Sakamoto's wife, Satoko, 29, and their 1-year-old son, Tatsuhiko, in November 1989.
Sakamoto had led lawyers representing families whose relatives had joined Aum.