A former Aum Shinrikyo follower who has confessed to involvement in the murders of an anti-Aum lawyer and his family gave a detailed account June 20 of how he kept in touch with both Aum and the police after leaving the cult.

Kazuaki Okazaki, 36, was cross-examined as a prosecution witness by defense lawyers for Aum founder Shoko Asahara at the Tokyo District Court. Asahara, 42, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, often disturbed the day's testimony by raising his voice as he sat in the defendant's seat.

Okazaki fled Aum a few months after the November 1989 murders of Yokohama lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife, and their baby son. Okazaki and five other cultists allegedly killed the family on Asahara's orders.

Okazaki told the court that he then decided to blackmail Aum and take photos of sites where Aum members had allegedly buried the Sakamotos. He photographed a utility pole near the site in Nagano Prefecture where Sakamoto's son was buried.

In February 1990, Okazaki telephoned Asahara and asked him to send him money for living expenses. Asahara turned down his request, at which point Okazaki mailed the photo, maps and a letter regarding the son's body to Kanagawa Prefectural Police and the Yokohama lawyers' office where Sakamoto had worked, he told the court.

Several days later, he sent similar letters indicating the whereabouts of the corpses of Sakamoto and his wife to the police and the lawyers' office. He then called Asahara again, who this time changed his mind and asked Okazaki how much money he wanted, the former cultist said.

Okazaki demanded 10 million yen. Asahara asked Okazaki how much he had with him. After Okazaki answered he had 1.7 million yen, Asahara told him that 10 million yen minus 1.7 million yen is 8.3 million yen, Okazaki said. Aum actually gave him 8.3 million yen, he added.

After striking the deal with Asahara, Okazaki managed to stop the second batch of letters from being delivered by going to a Yokohama post office, he said. In September 1990, however, police somehow managed to trace Okazaki and began questioning him over the first letters he had sent. At that time, however, he told police he had lied in the letter and denied Aum was involved in the disappearance of the Sakamotos because "the facts were too frightening," he said.

Despite receiving Okazaki's maps, police were unable to find the body of Sakamoto's son, even though Okazaki continued to meet regularly with investigators. Meanwhile, he had also phoned Aum to see whether the cult planned to harm him. Some Aum members, including Tomomasa Nakagawa and Tomomitsu Niimi, contacted him and they later met, he said. Okazaki said that he was trying to get information from his meetings with both cult members and the police, adding that he feared cult followers would assassinate him.

In spring 1995, Okazaki finally decided to give himself up to the police in order to destroy the cult, he said, adding that Aum's actions seemed to be escalating and that he believed he was in danger. The nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by Aum members had occurred in March.

The bodies of the three Sakamotos were found in September 1995.

At the beginning of the session, Asahara shouted, "That's enough!" He continued to make similar comments in English and Japanese throughout the session, disturbing the cross-examination.