Aum Shinrikyo ex-fugitive Makoto Hirata repeated Monday that he had no prior knowledge about the cult's 1995 plans to kidnap and confine Tokyo notary Kiyoshi Kariya as he testified for the first time in his ongoing trial.
Hirata, who turned himself in on New Year's Eve 2011 after 17 years on the lam, stands accused of three counts, including the 1995 kidnapping-and-confinement of Kariya and the bombing of the condominium of a sympathetic university professor.
He argued that he was told very little of the plan to snatch Kariya by his Aum superiors, whom he said had spoken too fast and made no reference to the victim, nor used the word "kidnap." Hirata claimed he was only told to "free" Kariya's wealthy sister from her family's "detention" and "rescue" her and bring her back to the cult.