Cult member's death penalty appeal rejected

The Tokyo High Court today upheld a death penalty for a former doomsday cult member convicted in attacks including the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gassing that killed 12 people, a court official said.

Tomomitsu Niimi, former “home affairs minister” of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was sentenced in 2002 to hang for murdering 26 people in seven separate attacks.