The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a former senior member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, in a move that will finalize a nine-year prison sentence for his involvement in three criminal incidents.
In a decision dated Wednesday, the top court's third petty bench upheld lower court rulings that found Makoto Hirata, 50, guilty of the abduction and confinement of a Tokyo notary clerk, as well as the bombing of a Tokyo condominium and firebombing of an Aum facility in 1995 on the eve of the cult's sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
Hirata's trial was the first of an Aum member determined by a panel of professional and lay judges.