The lawyers said they will file an appeal over the decision, saying the high court should have at least conducted simple mental tests on Asahara.

The 49-year-old founder of Aum Shinrikyo is appealing a death sentence over 13 cases, including the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system...)

The court also upheld the life imprisonment term given to another cultist over his role in the nerve-gas attack...

...Aum's heinous crimes have resulted in 12 cultists being sentenced to hang, including Toyoda, Hirose and guru Shoko Asahara, 49. All are now appealing....)

Kikuo Suzuki, the Hibiya Line's chief assistant stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, called on about 20 fellow workers to observe a moment of silence at 8 a.m., the time of the attack on five trains on three lines in 1995, for the 12 people who died and the thousands who were injured...)

The ruling on Shinichi Koshikawa wraps up high court judgments on crimes by Aum members who were handed fixed prison terms at the lower court level...)

At the height of Shoko Asahara's power as leader of the apocalyptic Aum Shinrikyo cult, followers paid exorbitant sums for the honor of drinking the guru's blood. Since 1995, when Aum carried out a poison-gas attack that killed 12 people in the Tokyo subway, the rest of Japan has been baying for his blood as well...)

This is despite a rash of public campaigns by lawyers, academics and the media disclosing the mind-control techniques used by cults and the suffering of former followers and their families...)

But they also expressed frustration that the eight-year trial failed to present the whole picture of the cult's unprecedented crimes due to the guru's silence. They also reiterated their call for state compensation to the survivors, their families and the next of kin of the victims, who still suffer from the damage caused by the crimes....)

"We will deeply take to heart the death sentence" and will "exert more efforts" to compensate the victims, the group said in a brief statement...)

The Tokyo District Court's presiding judge, Shoji Ogawa, in handing down the sentence, called Asahara's crimes "vicious and merciless."...)

The ex-leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult was sentenced Friday to hang for masterminding a crime spree that culminated in the subway assault, killed 27 people and brought modern terrorism to one of the world's safest nations...)

Former doomsday cult guru Shoko Asahara was convicted Friday and sentenced to hang for masterminding the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway and other crimes that killed 27 people and alerted the world to the danger of high-tech terrorism.

Asahara, founder of the apocalyptic Aum Shinrikyo cult, also was convicted of ordering his followers to produce and stockpile arsenals of conventional and chemical weapons, including the sarin gas used in the subway attack...)

Prosecutors have demanded that Shoko Asahara, 48, the former leader of Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect), be hanged for masterminding the subway attack and separate crimes that killed another 15 people...)

Once he talked about graduating from Japan's most elite university and becoming prime minister. Later, Shoko Asahara swapped his dreams of rising in society for a vision of its destruction...)

The founder of the Aum Shinrikyo sect...)

The trial of former cult guru Shoko Asahara, accused of masterminding the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways and amassing arsenals of chemical and biological weapons, reaches a climax Friday with a verdict -- and possible death sentence -- on charges he ordered a string of crimes that killed 27 people, panicked Japan and alarmed the world.

Defense lawyers argued that Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, had lost control over his Aum Shinrikyo cult by the time of the subway attack, in which sarin gas killed 12 people and sickened thousands...)

Nearly nine years later, Shoko Asahara, the leader of the group, is on Friday due to hear his verdict. Charged with masterminding a series of violent crimes, including two deadly nerve gas attacks, the partially blind guru faces the death penalty if found guilty...

...Aum has since renamed itself Aleph and renounced violence...) (Photo of Fumihiro Joyu included.) (Video Included.)

Miyaguchi, 38, even thought the apology would be a social turning point for Aum, which had not been forced to disband despite the arrests years earlier of its founder, Shoko Asahara, and many other top disciples on charges of committing the cult's murderous mayhem...)

As the convicted cultists pursue their appeals, including before the Supreme Court, their lawyers continue to seek leniency, claiming their clients were brainwashed by the guru and his teachings -- a factor the courts have partially recognized...)

The Tokyo District Court has sentenced 11 cultists to death for the killings, ruling they were all masterminded by the guru, including two sarin attacks that together claimed 19 lives and injured thousands...)

As guru of a doomsday cult, Shoko Asahara looked and sounded the part. Almost blind, his black beard flowing onto his chest, he claimed he could levitate, see into people's past lives and foretell the apocalypse.

On Friday, a Japanese court will decide whether he also commanded his disciples to murder, most terrifyingly in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people, sickened thousands and alerted the world to the threat of terrorism by mass slaughter...)

But it was only for show, as props for a docudrama...

The docudrama depicting the rise and fall of Aum will air Feb. 24 on the Nippon Television Network. The Tokyo District Court will rule Feb. 27 on Matsumoto's fate.

"We wanted to get a realistic feel of the times," said NTV producer Taizo Okada...)

Masami Tsuchiya, 39, became the 11th Aum member to receive the death penalty.

He was the last remaining follower of Aum founder Shoko Asahara still being tried before the district court. The court will hand down its ruling on Asahara on Feb. 27...) (Photo of Masami Tsuchiya included.)

Masami Tsuchiya, 39, was the 11th member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out the attack to be sentenced to death. Prosecutors said Tsuchiya's responsibility in the killings was second only to that of the group's guru, Shoko Asahara...)