Three Aum Shinrikyo figures, two of whom were sentenced to death for their involvement in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, filed appeals Tuesday with the Tokyo High Court, sources close to the defendants said.

Toru Toyoda, 32, and Kenichi Hirose, 36, are appealing their death sentences, and Shigeo Sugimoto, 41, his life sentence for his involvement in the attack, all meted out by the Tokyo District Court on July 17.

At the time of their trial, attorneys representing Toyoda and Hirose had argued the death sentence is too severe.

They said it would be absurd if the two received the same sentence as that expected for the cult's founder, Shoko Asahara, the alleged mastermind of the attack, and argued Toyoda and Hirose had been controlled by the guru, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto.

Sugimoto's attorneys argued he only assisted in the gassing, and asked for his sentence to be commuted.

The district court, however, ruled Toyoda and Hirose were largely responsible for the attack, which it called cruel and indiscriminate.

The court said the attackers targeted five trains on the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995 during the morning rush hour. Toyoda boarded a Hibiya Line train and Hirose a Marunouchi Line train to release the sarin. Twelve people died in the attack and thousands were injured.

Sugimoto served as a driver for Yasuo Hayashi, 42, another member of the squad. Hayashi was sentenced to death last month and has appealed the sentence.

The three defendants were also on trial in connection with various other charges. Toyoda in May 1995 attempted to kill then Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima by mailing a parcel bomb to the metropolitan government office in Shinjuku Ward, according to the court.

The package exploded when Aoshima's secretary opened it, causing the secretary to lose all the fingers of his left hand.

From 1994 to 1995, Toyoda, Hirose and Asahara planned the illicit manufacture of 1,000 automatic rifles modeled on Russian-made AK-47s and succeeded in producing one at an Aum facility.

The court also ruled that Sugimoto conspired with Asahara and other Aum members to kill two Aum followers in 1994.