Former Cultist Sentenced to Death

A former member of the cult responsible for a 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack was sentenced to death by hanging for an earlier attack and for killing a lawyer preparing to sue the sect, a Japanese court said. The Tokyo District Court found Satoru Hashimoto, 33, guilty of involvement in a 1995 sarin nerve gas attack in central Japan that killed seven people. Hashimoto helped the Aum Supreme Truth cult spread the deadly gas. In addition, he was sentenced for the 1989 strangling deaths of attorney Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and their infant son.