The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against a doomsday cult member who played a direct role in the fatal 1995 gassing of the Tokyo subway system, a court official said Friday.

The top court rejected an appeal by Aum Shinrikyo member Masato Yokoyama, 43, upholding lower court rulings that he should hang, according to court official Naoki Katayama.

Yokoyama was charged with murder for his role in the March 1995 attack, in which cult followers punctured plastic bags of sarin gas on rush-hour subway trains, killing 12 people and sickening thousands.

But Yokoyama's defense lawyers had sought leniency, arguing that he sprayed the nerve gas on the Marunouchi subway line, which did not cause any fatalities.

Before the attack, the cult had amassed an arsenal of chemical, biological and conventional weapons in anticipation of an apocalyptic showdown with the government.

More than a dozen death sentences have been handed out to members of Aum Shinrikyo, but none of them have been executed under Japan's slow judicial system.

Aum guru Shoko Asahara is on death row for masterminding 27 killings, including those in the subway attack.

Yokoyama is the third Aum figure whose death sentence stands. Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and cultist Kazuaki Okazaki are already on death row.

Aum once had 10,000 members in Japan and another 30,000 in Russia. Authorities say membership has shrunk to about 1,650 in Japan and 300 in Russia.