Prosecutors demanded the death sentence Tuesday for a former senior member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult charged with murder, including the deaths resulting from the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

The prosecutors asked for the death penalty in their closing arguments at the Tokyo District Court in the trial of Seiichi Endo, 41, who has admitted helping produce the sarin.

Endo, the former "health and welfare minister" of Aum, which was allegedly trying to topple the government, faces charges that include murder and attempted murder between May 1994 and April 1995.

He admitted during the trial to producing the nerve gas that was used in the subway attack on March 20, 1995, in which 12 people died and thousands were injured.

He said he acted on the instructions of Aum founder Shoko Asahara, 46, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, but denied intent to kill, saying he did not know the gas would be used in the attack.

Endo is also charged with playing a role in the sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in June 1994 that killed seven people and injured 144.

He denied intent to kill in that case as well, saying he was only put on standby at the site and did not think the sarin he made was going to be used against people.

The prosecutors charged that Endo played a key role in Aum's major illegal activities after 1990 and had given false statements denying intent to kill.

They said Endo played a key role in the subway attack as he took part in a conspiracy, produced sarin, put it in bags and gave preventive medicine to the people who actually carried out the attack.

According to the indictment, Endo, conspiring with Asahara, was involved in five criminal cases, including the two sarin attacks, as well as attempted murder in May 1994 in which he put sarin in the car of Taro Takimoto, a lawyer who helped Aum members who wanted to leave the sect.

He was allegedly involved in a December 1994 attack with VX nerve gas in Tokyo on Noboru Mizuno, who was helping people who quit the cult.

Takimoto and Mizuno were injured in the attacks, but neither died.

Endo, a native of Sapporo, joined Aum in 1987 when he was a graduate student of virology at Kyoto University.