Upholding a lower court ruling, the Tokyo High Court found a former gang member innocent Monday of ordering the 1995 murder of Hideo Murai, a key figure in Aum Shinrikyo.
The court dismissed prosecutors' charges that Kenji Kamimine, 51, a former leader of the Mie Prefecture-based Hane-gumi, ordered syndicate member Hiroyuki Jo to kill Murai.
Murai, 36, was stabbed in the stomach on April 23, 1995, in front of a crowd of reporters outside Aum's Tokyo headquarters in the Minami-Aoyama district. The attack came just over a month after the March 20, 1995, sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, for which Aum was being probed as the perpetrator.