April 7
JAPAN:
Death penalty upheld for top Japanese cult member
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a death sentence for Kazuaki Okazaki,
a former senior member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, for murdering lawyer
Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his family and another member of the cult.
Presiding Justice Niro Shimada rejected Okazaki's appeal, saying: "The
crimes were organized, carefully planned, ruthless and brutal. The
defendant's criminal responsibility is extremely serious due to his
aggressive participation in the killing of the people as a senior member
of the cult."
The appeal exhausted the defendant's last avenue to reduce the sentence,
which the Tokyo District and Tokyo High courts handed down.
Okazaki, 44, became the first among 13 Aum defendants with death sentences
in the district and high courts to have reached the end of the road.
The decision was unanimous among the court's 3 justices and confirmed the
judgments of lower courts, which held that the murders were masterminded
by Aum leader Chizuo Matsumoto, also known as Shoko Asahara. Matsumoto,
50, received a death sentence in his 1st-stage trial and has appealed the
ruling.
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold capital punishment for a
perpetrator of Sakamoto's murder, which is largely seen as the starting
point of the cult's criminal activities, will likely affect the trials of
Matsumoto and other Aum leaders, judicial experts said.
Okazaki, who changed his family name to Miyamae after being adopted by a
Buddhist priest, has accepted prosecutors' charges since his 1st-stage
trial.
In the Supreme Court, his lawyers mainly disputed:
-Whether his punishment should be reduced due to his voluntary surrender
to police and contributions to the investigation.
-Whether Okazaki was in a state of diminished capacity at the time of
committing the crimes due to being brainwashed by Matsumoto.
Judges at the first- and second-stage trials did not see any reason to
reduce his sentence and concluded that his surrender placed priority on
protecting his own interests, even though his surrender was legally
recognized as voluntary.
Thursday's ruling upheld this view, confirming the lower courts' judgments
on the effects of mind control. According to the ruling, Matsumoto's
brainwashing had not destroyed Okazaki's personality and he willingly
obeyed Matsumoto's orders.
The ruling concluded that his only motive had been to "protect the
organizational interests of the cult."
Concerning the murder of the Sakamotos, the ruling said: "He killed a
lawyer and his family even though the man had only acted professionally.
It was a crime of a strong antisocial nature that neglected to take any
consideration of this nation's law."
Lawyers insisted the defendant had deeply regretted his crimes since he
had been arrested and had called on other members of the cult to leave the
group in letters sent to the media.
(source: The Yomiuri Shimbun)
