Japan cult killer to hang

Thousands were injured in the Aum cult's subway attack

A member of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult has been sentenced to death for a series of murders he committed before the cult's notorious gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Satoru Hashimoto was sentenced for killing an anti-cult lawyer, his wife and one-year-old son in 1989, and also for a 1994 Sarin gas attack on an apartment block in central Japan which killed seven people.

The gas attacks continue to haunt Japan

According to the prosecution Hashimoto and other cult members crept into the home of the lawyer, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, and injected him and his family with lethal doses of potassium chloride as they slept.

Mr Sakamoto, one of cult's most vocal opponents, had been investigating the activities of the cult.

The bodies of the Sakamoto family were found buried in a mountainous area of central Japan after the Tokyo subway attack.

Trial run

Aum leader Shoko Asahara is on trial for masterminding the gas attacks

In 1998 another former Aum member, Kazuaki Okazaki, was sentenced to death for his part in murders.

The 1994 Sarin attack, for which Hashimoto was also convicted, is now seen as having been a trial run for the Tokyo subway attack a year later in which 12 people died and thousands were made ill.

Many of the victims are still suffering the after effects of inhaling the gas.

Three members of the Aum cult have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the subway attack.

The cult leader, Shoko Ashara, for whom Hashimoto once served as a bodyguard, is still on trial on 17 charges related to his role in the gas attacks.

Executions in Japan are by hanging, but take place only rarely. Most of those condemned spend many years in prison.