A senior Aum Shinrikyo member was sentenced to death Thursday for releasing deadly nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995 and for illegally manufacturing a rifle.

The Tokyo District Court found Masato Yokoyama, 35, a former deputy chief of the cult's so-called science and technology agency, guilty of releasing the gas on a Tokyo subway train on March 20, 1995, in an attempt to create chaos within the central government.

The court also accused him of joining in the cult's plan to manufacture 1,000 rifles. Although he successfully managed to produce only one firearm, it said Aum would have made more were it not for a police raid.

The court said it cannot believe Yokoyama is repentant of his crime because he still remains an Aum follower and loyal to cult founder Shoko Asahara.

The ruling marks the first time capital punishment has been meted out against an Aum follower in connection with the Tokyo subway gassing, which killed 12 and injured thousands. It is the second death penalty handed down to an Aum defendant.

Kazuaki Okazaki was sentenced to death last October in connection with the 1989 murder of an anti-Aum lawyer and the attorney's wife and baby. Okazaki is appealing the decision to a higher court.

Yokoyama is the second to be convicted of 11 Aum defendants accused of releasing sarin on the subway or chauffeuring those that had.

In handing down the ruling, Judge Manabu Yamazaki said Yokoyama obeyed Asahara's absolute rule and took no notice of the precious lives of the victims, calling the act "fanatic and self-righteous."

"The defendant played a key role in the incident from the beginning, since he tested what kind of container they should put the sarin in," the judge said, dismissing the defense claim that he merely obeyed orders from his superiors.

Although the court to some extent recognized that Yokoyama was under the guru's "mind control," it said the defendant was also responsible for not being able to see through Aum's deception and its "nonsensical" doctrine.

According to the court, Yokoyama boarded a Marunouchi Line train at Shinjuku Station on the morning of March 20, 1995, and pierced one of two plastic bags containing sarin several times with an umbrella. Nobody died from the sarin he released, but about 200 people were injured.

Yokoyama also played a major role in making rifles as part of the doomsday cult's militarization, drawing up the plan and supervising the project, it said.

Yokoyama, who apparently lost a great deal of weight since his arrest, stood motionless with his eyes downcast as he was sentenced to die.

When his trial opened in December 1995, Yokoyama admitted he pierced a bag of sarin on the train but denied intending to kill anyone.

His defense team, claiming police struck Yokoyama in the face during questioning, had asked the court not to use police reports as evidence. The lawyers also said that because no one died on the train he was on, he should be charged only with infliction of injury.

Defense attorneys has asked the court for leniency, citing the ruling of Ikuo Hayashi, a former Aum doctor who was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of death.

In May 1998, the district court sentenced Hayashi, 52, to life in prison for his role in the subway gassing. His escaping the gallows is widely seen as the result of his cooperative and repentant behavior, which authorities say led to exposing the whole picture of the crime.

But the court rejected all the defense's claims, saying that the fact Yokoyama pierced the bag several times proves he did not try to keep damages to a minimum.

The court also did not buy the argument that investigators beat him during questioning.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said after the ruling that the government believes that Yokoyama deserves the ultimate punishment.

"We believe that an appropriate decision was made, and that it recompenses the sacrifices made by the victims," the top government spokesman said at a news conference.

Koji Hayashi, a defense lawyer for Yokoyama, said the ruling was "unreasonable" in that it rejected the defendant's police brutality claim.

Although the defense team hopes to file an appeal, Hayashi quoted Yokoyama as saying he thinks it is better to accept the death penalty, considering the feelings of the victims' families.

"We will try to appeal, but we'll have a thorough discussion with the defendant and ultimately will respect his decision," Hayashi said.

Although Shoko Egawa, a journalist who has closely watched Aum activities, said the death penalty is a given, she said she has mixed feelings about it.

"The ruling does not give the followers a chance to start all over again," Egawa said. "This will just be another death from the sarin gas attack."

Shizue Takahashi, the widow of subway employee Kazumasa Takahashi, who died in the attack at Kasumigaseki Station on the Chiyoda Line, said Yokoyama deserves to hang.

"I don't think he was under mind control. I think the death penalty is the only option," she told reporters after the ruling.

Referring to Yokoyama's claim that he was beaten by the police during the investigation, Takahashi said Yokoyama's injury is nothing compared with what her husband suffered.

"(Yokoyama) claims his mouth was cut and he bled, but when I think of my husband, I feel that I want (Yokoyama) to inhale sarin and die," she said.

Aside from the Hayashi ruling, prosecutors seem to be drawing a line between defendants accused of releasing the sarin and those who drove their getaway cars.

In June, prosecutors sought the death penalty for Yokoyama, whereas they demanded life imprisonment for Koichi Kitamura, 31, who stands accused of being the driver for senior cultist Kenichi Hirose. Hirose allegedly released sarin gas on the Marunouchi train.

"There is nothing about the defendant (Yokoyama) that warrants leniency," a prosecutor said, noting Yokoyama did not help clarify the facts about the deadly attack while in court and merely remained silent or refused to testify.

Rulings on other Aum figures accused in the subway attack are expected later in the year or early next year. Thursday's decision will probably affect rulings for Kitamura and the other alleged accomplices.