Prosecutors yesterday demanded the death penalty for a doomsday cult guru charged with masterminding the 1995 nerve gas attack that killed 12 people on Tokyo's subways and a string of other crimes that deeply shocked Japan.

　　Closing their case in a trial that has already taken seven years, the prosecution demanded the Tokyo District Court hand down the harshest possible punishment for self-proclaimed messiah Shoko Asahara.

　　"The seriousness of the crime is unprecedented in this country," the prosecutors said in their closing statement, a several-hundred-page document they took turns reading aloud. "There is no room to consider leniency."

　　Wearing a gray sweatsuit, his long hair cropped and his beard trimmed, Asahara showed no emotion during yesterday's session. He appeared to be dozing off as the prosecutors requested he be hanged.

　　The 48-year-old guru, whose doomsday cult once claimed more than 10,000 followers around the world, is accused of sending his top disciples out to release the nerve gas sarin on Tokyo's subways during the morning rush hour on March 20, 1995.

　　The attack targeted stations close to the offices of Japan's central government. A dozen people were killed and some 5,000 sickened. Cult members have testified that the attack was intended to overthrow the government, create chaos and hasten Armageddon.

　　Asahara, who has denied the allegations but alternated between incoherent ranting and sullen silence throughout most of the trial, is also charged with ordering a series of other killings, assaults and kidnappings.

　　Prosecutors said he was involved in 26 deaths altogether. But the defense has argued that the crimes were carried out by Asahara's followers, without his involvement.

　　"Prosecutors completely failed to establish a link between the alleged crimes and Asahara," said Chief Defense Attorney Osamu Watanabe. "I'm appalled."