Court-appointed lawyers may defend Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara in his death penalty appeal as the one private lawyer currently representing him may not be able to handle the case on his own, trial sources said Saturday.
According to the sources, some judges at the Tokyo High Court are concerned that unless several lawyers are appointed by the court to defend Asahara, the appellate trial could extend over too long a period.
It is extremely rare for state-appointed lawyers to defend an accused party who already has a private lawyer, but some judges are advocating the measure because this is an "exceptionally large case."
In February, the Tokyo District Court imposed the death sentence on Asahara, 49, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, following nearly eight years of deliberations.
It found him guilty of all 13 charges leveled against him, including murder and attempted murder in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Although a team of 12 state-appointed lawyers had appealed the ruling to the Tokyo High Court, they are not defending Asahara in the appeal trial.
Takeshi Matsui, a lawyer who represents two of Asahara's daughters, will be working for Asahara during the high court trial.
According to the sources, some judges at the Tokyo High Court are opposed to appointing public defenders for Asahara.
Judge Masaru Suda, who will preside over the appeal trial, will have the final say in the matter.
Even with more than 10 lawyers on the case, Asahara's trial at the Tokyo District Court took about seven years and 10 months, with its dossier exceeding 50,000 pages.
The court might broadly interpret the Criminal Procedure Law's clause so that "a defendant who does not have a lawyer" could also include "cases where trials may not proceed smoothly with just one lawyer."