Prosecutors asked the Tokyo High Court on Friday to turn down an appeal filed by the counsel for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara against the death sentence he was handed two years ago for 13 criminal counts, including the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Asahara's death sentence may stand if the three-judge high court panel decides not to open hearings and reject the appeal, judicial experts say.
The Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office filed the request with the high court, saying it should not open hearings because the defense did not submit a statement giving the reason for the appeal by the deadline last August. Asahara's lawyers have complained that they cannot communicate with the effectively blind guru, who babbles incoherently.
A psychiatric report on Asahara, submitted to the court Monday, declared him mentally competent to stand trial, the prosecutors said.
The lawyers have said they did not meet the deadline because the defendant is in a state of serious mental disorder and cannot stand trial. The lawyers also called for a halt to court procedures on Asahara, 50, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto.
Presiding Judge Masaru Suda has urged the defense to file its opinion on the psychiatric report in written form by March 15.
In the report, released to the media Tuesday, psychiatrist Akira Nishiyama claimed Asahara has remained silent on his own free will and suggests he is mentally competent to stand trial.