Kyodo --The Tokyo District Court back in May rejected a second plea for a retrial for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, who is on death row for masterminding the 1995 deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other crimes, sources said Tuesday.
The matter is currently being deliberated at the Tokyo High Court, after Asahara's family, who filed the second plea in September 2010, appealed the district court's decision, dated May 9, to the higher court on May 16, the sources said.
The second daughter of the 56-year-old Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, filed the first plea for a retrial in November 2008. The Tokyo District Court rejected it in March 2009 and the ruling was later backed by the Tokyo High Court and the Supreme Court.
