Top court upholds death sentence on ex-AUM follower Hayakawa+

TOKYO, July 17 Kyodo -
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence given to a former senior
member of the AUM Shinrikyo religious cult who was convicted of involvement in
a series of crimes including the 1989 murders of an anti-AUM lawyer, his wife
and their son.

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, Kiyohide Hayakawa, 60, can still file an
objection with the highest court but it would be limited to technicalities such
as an error in the wording of the decision. Friday's decision, therefore, is
likely to be finalized as judicial experts say the top court has rarely
accepted such an objection.
AUM founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, and four other
former AUM members are currently on death row with their sentences finalized.
Hayakawa would be the sixth if his death sentence stands.
On Friday, Justice Ryoji Nakagawa, the presiding judge in the case at the
highest court's second petty bench, turned down Hayakawa's appeal against the
death sentence given in 2000 by the Tokyo District Court, a decision upheld by
the Tokyo High Court in 2004.
''It was a systematic, deliberate crime which was also cruel and brutal,''
Nakagawa said. ''Four people lost their lives and...while (Hayakawa) has shown
remorse, we have no choice but to uphold the death penalty.''
According to lower court decisions, Hayakawa, in conspiracy with AUM founder
Asahara, killed AUM member Shuji Taguchi, 21, at a cult facility at the foot of
Mt. Fuji in the city of Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, in February 1989.
Taguchi wanted to leave the cult at the time.
In November of that year, Hayakawa, in conspiracy with other AUM members, broke
into the home of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto in Yokohama and killed Sakamoto, 33,
his wife Satoko, 29, and their 1-year-old son Tatsuhiko. They abandoned their
victims' bodies in separate locations in a mountainous region.
Sakamoto was the leader of a group working for the families of people who had
joined AUM. The families were seeking the return of their relatives.
Hayakawa was also convicted of involvement in the construction of a sarin nerve
gas production plant at AUM's main facility in the village of Kamikuishiki,
Yamanashi Prefecture, also at the foot of Mt. Fuji, from 1993 to 1994.
Kamikuishiki village is now part of the town of Fujikawaguchiko.
Sarin gas was used in a 1994 attack on a residential district in Matsumoto,
Nagano Prefecture, in central Japan, and in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway
system. The two waves of sarin gas attacks left 20 people dead and thousands
ill.
Hayakawa had pleaded guilty in all seven criminal cases in which he was charged.
Hayakawa's defense counsel called for his death sentence to be commuted,
arguing Hayakawa could not help but obey the founder of the cult and it is
unfair for him to receive the same punishment as Asahara.
Prior to Friday's Supreme Court decision, Hayakawa sent a letter to Kyodo News
in which he said he hoped ''the sorrow and pain being felt by the families of
the victims would be eased by the upcoming ruling.''
''The sorrow, resentment and agony we brought (to the families) is beyond
imagination and I apologize for that,'' Hayakawa said in the letter.
Hayakawa joined AUM's predecessor body in 1986 and was one of its
longest-serving members. Having worked for a construction company, Hayakawa was
called ''construction minister'' in the cult, which had a state-like structure.
AUM Shinrikyo, known as AUM Supreme Truth in English, renamed itself Aleph in
January 2000. In 2007, a senior AUM member and his followers left Aleph to
launch a splinter group called Hikari no Wa (Circle of Rainbow Light).
The Tokyo High Court recently dismissed an appeal for a retrial for Asahara,
judicial sources said earlier this month.
==Kyodo