A former senior Aum Shinrikyo figure on Jan. 16 quoted a former police officer, an informant for the cult, as saying that police were desperate to arrest any Aum follower after the 1995 Tokyo subway attack to determine who committed the crime.Yoshihiro Inoue, 26, disclosing some of the conversations he had with Toshiyuki Kosugi, a former officer in the Metropolitan Police Department, was appearing as a prosecution witness in a hearing for Aum founder Shoko Asahara at the Tokyo District Court. Kosugi's case has been sent to prosecutors for allegedly leaking official information to Aum.Inoue admitted again that he had asked Kosugi, who was assigned to the Aum investigation, to provide inside information. He said he received a phone call from Kosugi every few days after the attack.He said Kosugi told him that police were initially confused about who released the sarin gas. They were so desperate that they ordered investigators to apprehend Aum followers by any means necessary, including intentionally bumping into them to cause a skirmish in hopes of arresting them for interfering with on-duty police, Inoue quoted Kosugi as saying.Inoue also admitted he had checked with Kosugi on whether the MPD knew the registration number of his car. But he denied he had obtained prior information from Kosugi about the police raid on the cult's facilities, which followed the March 20, 1995, subway attack. Inoue said he met with the officer in late 1994 and in 1995, even after the cult facilities had been raided. Inoue was arrested in May 1995 in connection with the sarin attack.
