TOKYO, Mar 2: Japanese prosecutors Monday recommended life imprisonment, rather than the death penalty, for one of live doomsday cult member who directly released sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway system three years ago, reports Reuter.

The recommendation at the trial of Ikuo Hayashi, a doctor who was a senior member of Aum Shinri Kyo (The Supreme Truth Sect), was the first sentence recommendation against any of t he 14 main defendants accused of staging the attack, which killed 12 people and made thousands ill.

The charges against Hayashi involved five separate cases and included not only murder but anti-terrorism laws, both of which can carry the death penalty.

Hayashi, who has pleaded guilty, admits he was one of five cultists who used umbrellas with sharpened tips to puncture plastic bags of the deadly gas they placed on crowded trains on March 20, 1995.